Hapan

Hapans were the near-Human natives of the Hapes Cluster, a closely packed star cluster located in the Inner Rim of the galaxy. They differed from baseline Human stock in a number of ways, most notably in that they possessed poor night vision and were considered to be, on average, more attractive than was the typical Human standard for beauty. Due to the Transitory Mists that surround the Hapes Cluster, the Hapans were isolated from the rest of the galaxy both culturally and genetically.

Because most of the male population, which made up the Lorell Raiders pirate gang, was largely wiped out by the Jedi around 3,000 BBY, the Hapans adopted a matriarchal society and were ruled by a Queen Mother. The first Queen Mother closed the borders of the Hapes Cluster to the galaxy at large, which resulted in the Hapans dealing with intruders swiftly and lethally. Over the years, interaction between Hapans and the rest of the Galaxy was extremely limited, due to their enforced isolation. However, in 8 ABY, the Hapans opened their borders to the rest of the Galaxy, and it has since been much easier to spot a Hapan than it has been in the past.

Biology and appearance
Hapans were biologically the same as other Humans, however they possessed some key differences, the most prominent of which was that they were selectively bred over many generations to be beautiful. This was due to the fact that in 4,000 BBY, the pirates that originally ruled the Hapes Cluster captured and mated with the more attractive of the women they captured. Due to the isolation of the sixty-three inhabited worlds that made up their home, the whole population eventually became beautiful due to the limited gene pool.

Another trait that Hapans possessed was their night blindness. Because of the perpetual daylight of Hapes and other planets in the Cluster due to the density of stars in the region, the Hapans have lost all ability to see in the dark, and were nearly blind even in dim lighting.

History
Hapans were the descendants of the Lorell Raiders, a group of pirates who had found routes through the Transitory Mists and used the Hapes Cluster as their base. The Lorell Raiders, along with any other treasure they would plunder, would abduct beautiful women from all over the Galaxy and bring them back to Hapes. The Women would stay on Hapes and raise their children. The Lorell Raiders would take boys and make the raiders only to return to Hapes to rest. Around 4,050 BBY, however, the mostly male Lorell Raiders were decimated by the Jedi when they ventured out into Galactic Republic space. Hapes was forgotten, and the women left behind took control and vowed that a man will never rule them again. They formed the Hapan society, with a Queen Mother at its head. Around 3,100 BBY, a Queen Mother sealed the borders to the newly created Hapes Consortium from the rest of the Galaxy, ordered the starship Star Home to be constructed, and quickly captured many more planets for the Hapans to colonize.

Information on Hapan history between 3,000 BBY and 8 ABY was very hard to come by, but what was found was that sometime in the distant past, several members of the Hapes Consortium tried to secede from the influence of Hapes, but were quickly crushed. Those worlds became known as the Rifle Worlds, and eventually they became the commerce base of the Consortium.

Shortly before the Great Jedi Purge and the rise of the Galactic Empire, a Hapan Jedi washout named Sinsor Khal returned to the Hapes Cluster to become a scientist. Due to his failed Jedi status and his location in the Hapes Cluster, he survived the Great Jedi Purge. Later on, he would be banished to a lockdown science lab on Gallinore by Ta'a Chume for cruelty to his subjects, although she would continue to fund his research.

It is believed that the Hapans were left to their own devices by the Galactic Empire, as no records of any major confrontations between the two parties exist as of yet. However, there were some skirmishes near the border that resulted in the Hapans capturing some Imperial Star Destroyers. Some of these Star Destroyers would be later presented as a gift to Leia Organa and used by the New Republic.

In 2 ABY, Kalen, the Chume'da (or heir) of the Hapes Consortium, was captured in the Terephon system and killed. Kalen's brother Isolder then went on a two year undercover quest to find and apprehend the killer. The culprit, a Hapan pirate named Harravan, was eventually found and apprehended, but died mysteriously in jail before he could be questioned.

A short time after, Isolder's fiancée, Elliar, was found murdered in one of Hapes's many reflecting pools. As far as it was known, no one was ever charged or questioned in Elliar's death. It would later come out that Ta'a Chume was responsible for arranging the murders of both Elliar and of her own son.

In 8 ABY, Princess Leia Organa went to Hapes to discuss with Ta'a Chume a possible alliance with the New Republic. While Organa was there, Isolder fell in love with her, and requested of his mother permission to marry her. Permission was granted, and was made a part of the deal: Hapes would ally with the New Republic if Organa married Isolder. Instead, after an adventure on the planet Dathomir, Isolder proposed marriage to a Dathomiri Witch named Teneniel Djo. Ta'a Chume disapproved of the young Dathomiri, but grudgingly accepted her son's choice of a bride after Djo used the Force on her. Isolder also demanded of his mother that the Consortium join the New Republic, which she agreed to, but eventually did not live up to an effort to preserve internal stability. Also at this time, Dathomir was admitted into the Consortium as the unofficial 64th planet.

Some time later, Ta'a Chume stepped down as Queen Mother, and was replaced by Teneniel Djo. The Consortium stayed out of galactic politics for over a decade and a half, until the advent of the Yuuzhan Vong War. The people rejoiced at the birth of Tenel Ka in 10 ABY, but they would be disappointed in their heir's preference for her mother's culture. Since Tenel Ka had trained to be a Jedi and had no interest in taking over the Hapan throne, the issue of another heir had become a hot topic.

To resolve the issue, Isolder and Teneniel tried to have another child. They had succeeded, as Teneniel was in the early stages of pregnancy when Leia Organa Solo again visited Hapes in 25 ABY to request the assistance of the Hapan Royal Navy in the fight against the Yuuzhan Vong. A vote was made by the planetary delegates, which ended up in a tie. Beed Thane then provoked an honor duel with Isolder, with the winner controlling the tie breaking vote. Isolder defeated Thane, and the navy was dispatched to Fondor, with Isolder himself commanding the Song of War. However, due to Centerpoint Station being misaligned, the beam from that ancient weapon took out three quarters of the Hapan fleet. Due to the Force backlash, Teneniel miscarried and went into a deep depression.

With the Queen Mother incapacitated and Isolder blamed for the loss of many lives at Fondor, the people began calling for stronger leadership. Since Isolder refused to allow Ta'a Chume to reassume the throne, she began a plot to find a new wife for Isolder. In 27 ABY, when the survivors of the Myrkr strike team flew to Hapes for refuge, Ta'a Chume saw a younger version of herself in the grieving Jaina Solo and tried to groom her to be the next Queen Mother. To further her plot, Ta'a Chume had also arranged to have Teneniel Djo poisoned. Unexpectedly, however, it was Tenel Ka who took up her fallen mother's crown, not because she desired it, but to keep her grandmother and other bloodthirsty relatives from ruling Hapes. The new Queen Mother revealed Teneniel's legacy: A whole fleet of ships built in secret and hidden in the Transitory Mists, ready to be used in the fight against the Yuuzhan Vong. The Consortium eventually joined the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances in 28 ABY, and they aided in Alliance campaigns against the Yuuzhan Vong.

The period between 30 ABY and 35 ABY is not recorded in history texts as of yet, so it must be assumed that this was a peaceful time for the Hapans.

In 35 ABY, Jacen Solo came to Hapes to visit his friend, Queen Mother Tenel Ka, and to ask for her assistance in sending a fleet to defend the Killik against the Chiss. Tenel Ka granted the request, provided he spend some time with her. Shortly after, she secluded herself for almost a year, and in 36 ABY, Tenel Ka gave birth to Jacen's daughter, whom she named Allana. The identity of Allana's father remained unknown to all except her parents, and Tenel Ka refused to release any holoimages of her.

Shortly after the birth of Allana, Ta'a Chume, who was still under house arrest for the death of Teneniel Djo, was rendered catatonic by Jacen Solo after he found out it was she who had arranged for the Dark Nest's attempt on his daughter's life.

A few months later, Queen Mother Tenel Ka was one of many Jedi summoned by Luke Skywalker to a Jedi meeting on Ossus. When everyone had assembled, Skywalker gave an ultimatum that the Jedi Order came first, and that any who could not put the order first was welcome to leave. Tenel Ka went to Skywalker after the meeting and told him that regretfully, she cannot put being a Jedi before being Queen Mother, and offered up her lightsaber. Skywalker told her to keep it, and that there was a place for her in the Order if she ever decided to return. After an awkward meeting with Han and Leia Organa Solo, Tenel Ka went back to Hapes.

During the Second Corellian Insurrection of 40 ABY, some rogue Hapan nobles calling themselves the Heritage Council got in touch with the Corellian government and hatched a plot to eliminate the pro-Galactic Alliance Queen Mother Tenel Ka and her daughter Allana. After both the Queen Mother and her heir were dead, the rogue Hapan nobles would then align the Hapes Consortium with the Corellians.

Knowing that the pro-Corellian Han and Leia Solo were good friends of the Queen Mother, the Corellian leadership used them as dupes and sent them on a fake mission to Hapes in an effort to draw the Queen Mother into a trap laid by the Hapan nobles. After realizing that they were used, the Solos foiled the assassination attempt and decided to spy on the assassin named Nashtah to determine the extent of the conspiracy.

Alerted to the assassination attempt, Queen Mother Tenel Ka contacted Jacen Solo, who was by now the head of the Galactic Alliance Guard, to help in the investigation. In turn he arranged to have both Tenel Ka and their daughter smuggled onto his flagship, the Anakin Solo, to prevent any more attempts on their lives.

After it was revealed that the Duchas of AlGray and Galney were part of the rogue Hapan nobles planning to take over Hapes, Tenel Ka left the Anakin Solo to prepare the Royal Navy for battle, but not before giving express instructions that Allana was to remain onboard.

Despite the fact that Jacen placed his daughter under a heavy guard, the assassin Nashtah still managed to get through all the security protocols that Jacen had set up and proceeded on her quest to kill Allana. Jacen then proceeded to engage Nashtah in battle, and while the assassin was lying on the ground wounded, Allana injected Nashtah with a sleep stick.

Over Hapes, the battle between the Hapan loyalists and the Heritage Council raged. Both sides suffered heavy losses, but with the aid of the Anakin Solo, the Hapan loyalists were victorious. Jacen Solo was hailed as a hero among the Hapan people, and because of this Tenel Ka briefly considered announcing Allana's paternity to her people.

However, Tenel Ka eventually came to realize that Jacen was not the man she once knew. She attacked him at the Battle of Kashyyyk, where he was burning the planet with his fleet. After the battle, she met with Luke Skywalker, the Rock Council, and Admiral Babo of the Confederation, and explained that she was withdrawing support from the Galactic Alliance, but not joining the Confederation. She did, however, join the Wookiees and Jedi in the resistance against Jacen.

Jacen later attempted force Tenel Ka to return to the Alliance by kidnapping Allana and threatening to kill her, but this merely achieved Hapan neutrality. Tenel Ka went to Luke Skywalker for help, and he led a strike team to the Anakin Solo in order to rescue her. The operation was a success and Allana was returned to Tenel Ka.

During the Sith-Imperial War and the Fel Insurgency that followed, Hapes remained neutral.

Language
The native language of the Hapans was Hapan. The Hapan language developed over the years because of isolation from the rest of the Galaxy, and was spoken throughout the Consortium. Galactic Basic Standard was not commonly known to the average Hapan, but since the opening of the borders in 8 ABY, it became more common.

Government


The Hapans were ruled by the Queen Mother from Fountain Palace as part of the Hapes Consortium. The title of Queen Mother was hereditary, passed down from mother to daughter. If the Queen Mother failed to have daughters, the wife of the firstborn son became Queen Mother. However, to be in the line of succession meant both the Queen Mother and her heirs had to avoid constant attempts on their lives by jealous relatives who vied for the throne themselves.

In addition to the Queen Mother, there were also representatives from each Consortium member planet at the Royal Court. Their main purpose was to vote on matters of importance and to give updates on the political and social conditions of their home planets that may require the Queen Mother's attention. The Queen Mother had the final say on everything, and her word was considered law.

Military
The Hapan Navy consisted of at least sixty-three Hapan Battle Dragons, one for each member world, and were usually backed up by X-wings, Hapes Nova Battle Cruisers, and Miy'til starfighters. During the Skywalker epoch, one of the flagships of the Hapan Fleet, besides the Queen Mother's Star Home, was Isolder's Song of War.

The main functions of the Hapan Navy were to keep outsiders from entering the Hapes Consortium and to defend the Consortium in times of war. Any unauthorized persons who attempted to enter the Consortium without permission were dealt with in a swift and brutal manner. Other functions of the Navy were as escorts of the royal family when they left Hapes, and for flushing pirates out of the Transitory Mists.

There were also ground-based military units, such as members of the royal guard. Members of the royal guard wore red, and were usually handpicked for their posts. It was considered a great honor to serve the royal family, and people who did were accorded much respect among the populace.

Culture
"Never let a man become so deluded as to believe that he is the intellectual equal of a woman! It only leads him to evil."

- Proverb of the women of Hapes

Hapan culture, at least among the upper classes, was based on assassination attempts and struggles for power. Most upper class Hapans would think nothing of arranging the death of one of their own if it would advance their own cause. Ta'a Chume had demonstrated this principle numerous times when she had arranged for the deaths of her elder son, her younger son's fiancée, and her daughter-in-law, and attempted to have her granddaughter and great-granddaughter killed. The Queen Mother was treated like a goddess by the Hapans, and her selection of a consort was important to all her people. Candidates for the role of consort often came from the nobility, mainly to keep the gene pool vibrant. There were fierce rivalries between many noble houses over which house would get their sons to father the next Queen Mother, and nobles often plotted against both the consort and the heir of the Queen Mother who was not fathered by one of their own. It was because of this that Allana's paternity was kept secret, so all the noble houses would believe that one of their own possibly fathered her and would not harm her.

Due to the matriarchal society of the Hapes Consortium, men were often treated as second class citizens. Although most Hapan males were used mainly for breeding, some held positions of power, although their ability to use it was limited. Some Hapan men who felt trapped by their position in society often ran away and became pirates. These men hid out in the Transitory Mists and preyed on unsuspecting vessels, at least until caught by passing Nova Battle Cruisers. When captured, they would be put on trial, and possibly executed depending on how severe the charge was.

Anti-Jedi sentiment was rife among the Hapans, mainly due to the fact that the Lorell Raiders had fallen to the Jedi. This sentiment came to head during the reign of Ni'Korish, Ta'a Chume's mother. Ni'Korish had an immense hatred of Jedi and had done her best to wipe out any that had made their way into the Consortium. Because of this, an anti-Jedi faction had formed among the Hapans named after her. The faction had come into prominence during the Yuuzhan Vong War, mainly due to the backlash of the Battle of Fondor. Many Hapans who had blamed Teneniel Djo for the disaster at Fondor became members of the Ni'Korish. It was this faction, under the control of Ta'a Chume, that had Teneniel Djo assassinated in 27 ABY. It is not known what the thoughts of the general Hapan public were regarding the new Queen Mother, Tenel Ka, being a member of the Jedi Order. However, there is a hint of greater tolerance towards the Jedi during Tenel Ka's leadership after Jacen Solo saved her from Corellian sympathizers in 40 ABY. The Hapan loyalists highly praised Jacen as a hero for his actions, seemingly an indication of the decrease in anti-Jedi sentiments.

The Hapan people had a deep (some would say neurotically so) love of beauty. If a person, especially the heir to the throne, was blemished or deformed in any way, it was considered a fate worse than death. Since details are scarce on how the blemished and deformed were treated by Hapan society, it has been speculated that they were shunned or possibly put to death, presumably to remove the blemish from the gene pool.

Technology
Developed in the isolation of the Hapes Consortium, Hapan technology had advanced in some areas (ion technology) but had lagged seriously behind the rest of the Galaxy in others (turbolaser technology). This was demonstrated best in the Hapan Battle Dragons and the Hapes Nova Battle Cruisers, both of which were limited in their firing rates. However, upgrades provided by the New Republic during the Yuuzhan Vong War improved the already considerable firepower of these vessels.

An example of Hapan innovative technology came from the planet of Charubah. Named the Gun of Command, its purpose was to disable a person's thought processes with an electromagnetic field, making the person temporarily unable to think for themselves. When placed in the wrong hands, the Gun of Command was considered a dangerous weapon indeed.

There were also medical facilities on Hapes that could produce some of the most realistic-looking artificial limbs in the galaxy, and the planet Gallinore housed high-tech laboratories with the most up to date equipment. Ta'a Chume kept some of the Consortium's best scientists here and funded their research, despite the fact that they have committed crimes in the past that resulted in them being banished to the lockdown facility they work in. It was here that Jaina Solo sought out Sinsor Khal to request his help in modifying the signals of Yuuzhan Vong slave implants. Without this research, Hapes might have fallen to the invaders.

Notable Hapans

 * Ni'Korish - Mother of Ta'a Chume, Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium.
 * Ta'a Chume - Former Queen Mother of Hapes Consortium.
 * Kalen - Elder son of Ta'a Chume. Murdered on her orders.
 * Prince Isolder - Younger son of Ta'a Chume, father of Queen Mother Tenel Ka.
 * Astarta - Isolder's bodyguard.
 * Tenel Ka - Queen Mother of Hapes Consortium, Jedi Knight.
 * Allana - Queen Mother Tenel Ka's daughter.
 * Sinsor Khal - Failed Jedi, morally bankrupt scientist.
 * Lady Galney - Hapan noble and the aide of Queen Mother Tenel Ka.

Behind the scenes
Some sources describe Hapans as Human, and others as near-Human.

Appearances

 * Odds
 * The Queen of Air and Darkness
 * The Courtship of Princess Leia
 * Hutt and Seek
 * Young Jedi Knights
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Edge of Victory I: Conquest
 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
 * Star By Star
 * Dark Journey
 * Destiny's Way
 * The Unifying Force
 * Dark Nest I: The Joiner King
 * Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen
 * Dark Nest III: The Swarm War
 * Tempest
 * Exile
 * Sacrifice
 * Inferno
 * Fury
 * ''Invincible

Notes and references
Hapaner