Venan civil war

"Are you certain that Baroness Omnino wasn't followed from the Vena system?" "Yes, Chancellor. Every precaution was taken. But since the Baroness has been marked by assassination by the Vena Isolationists, it is regrettable that she rejected a Jedi escort."

- Chancellor Finis Valorum and Staff Aide Sei Taria

The Venan civil war was a bloody conflict on Vena fought during the waning years of the Galactic Republic. It lasted for at least twenty years

History
"I suspect they want to open a trade route to Vena. But if that is the Baroness' goal, she will first need our help to bring unity to her own troubled star system."

- Staff Aide Sei Taria to Chancellor Finis Valorum

Descended from early Hapan explorers, the Venans had a historical tradition of maintaining an independent and isolationist stance on their Expansion Region system, remaining unaffiliated from the Galactic Republic, even though they shared a good relationship and the Venans would occasionally trade with the nearby Hapes Cluster for items they could not produce on their own.

Circa 57 BBY, the rise of Baron Kindoro and Baroness Omnino to power on Vena changed this historic position. Due to the fact that Kindoro and Omnino had been both ambassadors to Coruscant and Alderaan, this contact with outsiders motivated an economic deregulation and the ratification of trade agreements, in order to make goods accessible to the Venan royal family. Since the Baron and his family controlled shipping, this course of action initially did not find resistance.

However, this radical shift angered many Venans, who resented the fact that only the royal family was benefitting from the economic opening. The commoners, rallied as the Vena Isolationists, called for a return to their closed borders and old-fashioned values, in opposition to the extravagant lifestyles their rulers were adopting. The regents, unwilling to give in to popular demands, imprisoned the movement leaders and sent them to labor camps. This move aggravated tensions and motivated the manufacturing of weapons, emergence of terrorist attacks against Venan nobility and sabotaging of cargo ships.

The conflict was worsened with the naturally-occurring death of Baron Kindoro, while traveling in Republic Space. Baroness Omnino proved herself even more unmerciful than her husband, as she set as her top priority the quelling of the insurrection. She waged bloody war for years against her subjects.

Throughout the war, the Baronness heavily invested in illegal brainwave projection technology&mdash;mind control devices&mdash;in order to influence events outside of her system in her favour. Instead of trying to manipulate the movement leaders into turning themselves in, she used the device to perform a false-flag assassination attempt when she arrived on Coruscant in 37 BBY, to commence membership negotiations for Vena. The attack garnered her sympathy within the Galactic Senate, which led to the effective adhesion of Vena into the Republic. She also gave once such device to land baron Taxer Sundown, who fabricated a myth about how the Mantellian Savrips were killing colonists on Ord Mantell, and used this opportunity to kill the existing land barons, usurp their operations and seize power on Ord Mantell. The second motive was to provide a continual supply of Savrip meat to Vena&mdash;considered a delicacy by the Venan royal family&mdash;.

Her off-world plot was thwarted by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, who unraveled the scheme and beheaded the Baroness.

Behind the scenes
The Venan civil war was first hinted to in a conversation between Staff Aide Sei Taria and Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum, in Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan: Last Stand on Ord Mantell, a comic series written by Ryder Windham and drawn by Ramón F. Bachs, composed of three issues released in December 2000, and in February and March 2001. In the conversation, Sei Taria fleetingly says that Baroness Omnino is marked for assassination by the Vena Isolationists.

The web-exclusive article Before the Rise, published on the Wizards of the Coast website on April 16, 2002 written by J.D. Wiker as a scenario supplement for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game later expanded the back-story behind the reason she was wanted dead by the isolationists. The article also covered three other political factions: the Galactic Senate, the Jedi Order and the Hutts during the Rise of the Empire era.

Appearances

 * Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan: Last Stand on Ord Mantell 1