Nyriaan/Legends

"The world, Nyriaan, is a curious place, mostly because of its unique and volatile atmosphere that, when combined with its unusually strong magnetic field, makes landing on the planet a most hazardous endeavor."

- Ghurn

Nyriaan was a planet that was located in the Luire system, in the Mid Rim.

Description
Nyriaan was rich in madilon, a rare, naturally occurring alloy that could be used to make hyperdrives smaller. It was a habitable world, with an atmosphere that was made up mainly of nitrogen and oxygen, and a mean temperature of 40 °C. The planet was covered by a thick, cloud layer, that blocked communications and made unaided landing almost impossible. Large storms were common and could last for months at a time. They posed a constant threat to settlements, so they were monitored by the Tempest Observation Bureau.

The planet surface consisted of plains and low hills, with some valleys, where boggy conditions had formed. In the northern hemisphere, there were many shallow, rocky valleys, which were where most of the planet's mining operations took place.

An interesting feature of Nyriaan was the effect that its atmosphere had on the Force. While Force-users could use the Force when on the planet surface, they couldn’t while traveling though the planetary atmosphere, due to an unidentified interference.

Flora and Fauna
Hundreds of thousands of different animal species evolved on Nyriaan and the majority of them were small in stature. One of the few larger species were the lluma, which were herbivorous herd animals. Another species were the omnivorous, frog-like pherins. Both species were preyed upon by Nyriaan’s top predator, the chlovi cat.

Nyriaan also had a vast number of different plant species, including many different species of fungi, although only 5% of the planet's plant species had been classified by scientists. One of the more common species was the chlovi, a type of large fungus. Other species included the deadly Falsin's rot and the massive Meadlin's trees, which were the largest species of fungi on Nyriaan. Another plant, a small fungal weed, called the mire nettle, could be processed to create Nyriaan spice, a type of powerful narcotic. The parasitic fungus tempest's blessing grew on and lived in symbiosis with host organisms and could increase the host's visual acuity.

Discovery and exploration
The Luire system was discovered in 4,129 BBY and in 4,067 BBY, the exploration ship Starveil carried out an extensive study of the system. However, it crash landed on Nyriaan.

During the Jedi Civil War, the Sith Lord Darth Glovoc had a vison that there was something of interest on Nyriaan. He took command of the Interdictor-class cruiser Dying Sun and he traveled with it to the Luire system. However, while the cruiser surveyed Nyriaan, it was attacked by three Republic cruisers. The Sun destroyed the cruisers, but was critically damaged and became caught in the planet's gravity well, eventually crash landing on Nyriaan. Escape pods from all four ships also landed on the planet's surface.

In 403 BBY, the Corporate Sector Authority ship Commerce went missing while attempting an orbital scan of Nyriaan. More CSA ships were sent to explore the planet, they made no significant discoveries and heard nothing from the Commerce.

Two Republic-funded vessels, the Locus and the Ardent Virtue arrived in the Luire system in 90 BBY, to carry out a five-year survey. In 87 BBY, the Locus lost power while scanning the atmosphere of Nyriaan and made a controlled landing on the planet. The Virtue attempted a rescue, but failed in it's initial attempts, losing two shuttles in the process. The following year, with additional Republic support, the crew of the Ardent Virtue constructed a gondola, that was tied to the Virtue and lowered onto the surface of Nyriaan. The wreckage of the Locus was located by the landing party, but they found no sign of the surviving crew members. They then proceeded to carry out a preliminary surveys of the planet from the ground, and also established laser comm arrays, so that they could directly communicate with the Virtue.

In 85 BBY, the crew of the Ardent Venture discovered traces of madilon in the soil of Nyriaan. They attempted to keep this secret, but a CSA research station on the nearby planet Caillte intercepted communications and learned of the discovery. Some of the Venture's crew members attempted to sell the information for personal profit, causing a number of survey ships to travel to the Luire system. Many of them made unsuccessful attempts at landing on Nyriaan.

Settlement
The CSA wanted possession of Nyriaan and its madilon deposits, so in 84 BBY the CSA laid claim to the entire Luire system. The Republic rebuffed their claim and for the duration of the resulting legal battle, a quarantine of Nyriaan was enforced. In 81 BBY, a Republic court ruled that the CSA only had jurisdiction over Caillte, not the Nyriaan and the rest of the Luire system. Nyriaan was opened for settlement and a number of new settlements were established, utilising an updated version of the gondola system. The Tapani sector noble houses House Mecetti and House Reena both established settlements of their own.

The first laser transport arrays were established on Nyriaan by the CSA in 69 BBY, allowing properly equipped starships to land on the planet. The specific details on how to user laser array technology were leaked two years later, allowing anyone to acquire the technology and land on the surface of Nyriaan.

In 66 BBY, the Hyperspace Navigator's Guild began to press the Galactic Senate to pass legislation to require bonded navigators to assist with all laser transport array landings on Nyriaan. The CSA protested, but the Senate passed the legislation anyway.

Following the CSA-sponsored liquidation of a settlement, in 47 BBY, the Nyriaanan natives staged an uprising and wiped out a number of frontier towns. In 43 BBY, with the assistance of the Jedi Knight Amar Cross, a non-aggression pact was negotiated, restoring peace to the planet.

Due to the influence of the Trade Federation, in 39 BBY the Mining Guild attempted to drive up prices on Nyriaan. The CSA attempted to undermine the Guild, so the Guild responded by sabotaging the CSA's ore transfer facilities.

In 36 BBY, the CSA prospected on land owned by the native Nyriaanans, in breech of a mining agreement. The natives initiated hostilities against the CSA and the Trade Federation and Mining Guild secretly gave support to the insurgency. The Galactic Senate acted to resolve the tensions on Nyriaan once and for all, by passing the Luire Accord. The planet was divided up into a number of regions, each controlled by a different group, while a government, the Nyriaan Concord, was established. A number of reservations were set aside for environmental purposes and the native clans retreated into the planet's unexplored regions.

The CSA began a large-scale immigration of laborers to Nyriaan in 29 BBY. The majority of the laborers were Pa'lowicks and by the end of the year, every major settlement on Nyriaan had a Pa'lowick ghetto. A number of Pa'lowicks freed themselves from bondage to the CSA and established the settlement New Lowick.

The Clone Wars
An inter-galactic conflict known as the Clone Wars broke out in 22 BBY, between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Confederacy captured Nyriaan during the First Battle of Nyriaan and the Republic's holdings on the world were annexed and split between the CSA and the Mining Guild. Without the restrictions that had been placed on them by the Republic, the CSA and the Mining Guild both expanded their operations and began exploiting native land. The natives resisted violently, and were assisted by the remnants of the Republic forces.

In 19 BBY, a Republic strike force was dispatched to the Luire system and the CIS was defeated in the Second Battle of Nyriaan and driven from the system. However, shortly afterwards, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the leader of the Republic, initiated Order 66 and all of the Jedi in the system were killed.

Imperial rule
Following the end of the Clone Wars, Republic was re-organized to become the Galactic Empire, which became the new ruler of Nyriaan.

In 17 BBY, House Melantha of the Tapani sector staked a claim on Nyriaan.

The Empire began the construction of a large ion shielding station in 13 BBY, located just outside Locus, the planetary capital. The station was completed in 8 BBY and was capable of projecting energy shields, to protect starships from the hazards of Nyriaan’s atmosphere. This allowed the Empire and the Mining Guild to initiate Operation Cloudfall, the stripping of all of the planet’s useful ore.

The shield station was sabotaged by agents of the Alliance to Restore the Republic in 1 BBY, bringing it offline for three months. By 2 ABY, an Alliance-affiliated insurgency had stopped Operation Cloudfall. The majority of the operation's slave Wookiee and Mon Calamari workers then joined the insurgency.

The New Republic and the Yuuzhan Vong
Following the fall of the Empire, in 8 ABY, the New Republic offered to recognize Nyriaan’s planetary autonomy, as governed by the Nyriaanan natives. The madilon exporters rallied against the offer and although the native clans were intrigued by it, the exporters were successful. In 10 ABY, the CSA launched a legal challenge against the New Republic’s right to offer Nyriaan independence. The resulting court battle was lengthy and was never fully resolved.

In 26 ABY, the Yuuzhan Vong, a species of extra-galactic invaders, conquered Nyriaan. Their attack was made easier by the fact that their technology was unaffected by the Nyriaanan atmosphere, and they destroyed all of the mining operations. The Yuuzhan Vong priests proclaimed that the planet was blessed, because of the way its atmosphere resisted the Force. The Vong originally ignored the native clans, but when they began using captured natives for experiments, the natives initiated a guerrilla war, to try and drive the invaders out. Following the defeat of the Vong in 29 ABY, a number of Yuuzhan Vong refugees settled on Nyriaan and were eventually accepted as equals by the native clans.

The Galactic Alliance began reconstruction efforts on Nyriaan in 31 ABY and Locus was rebuilt, while the Imperial shielding station was repaired. The CSA resumed mining operations in 38 ABY, after rebuilding their old facilities.

Nyriaan later fell under the control of the Fel Empire and its successor government, Darth Krayt's Sith Empire. Some Sith agents heard rumors about the Dying Sun, so in 132 ABY, the Sith Lord Darth Vurik was sent to Nyriaan, to investigate.

Inhabitants
Nyriaan was home to a number of Nyriaanan native clans, who were descended from the human crew of the Starveil and other starships that had crashed on the planet over the years. They had evolved to become adapted to the planet, with pale skin, a stocky stature and eyes that were well suited to the world’s dim light. They spoke Nyriaanan, a mixture of Basic and High Galactic. The natives were distrustful of the colonists and prospectors who lived on Nyriaan, seeing them as competition for the planet’s resources. Some of the clans were nomadic, while others lived in the groves of Meadlin's trees,

The planet was also home to the descendants of the Sith crew of the Dying Sun. Over time, they had became twisted and inbred, but retained their devotion to their leader, Darth Glovoc. They only constituted a small part of Nyriaan's population and generally remained in seclusion, but on occasion, would encounter the Nyriaanan clans, whom they would attack on sight.