To boldly alchemize what no one alchemized before
A One Sith-operated Banta Four manned by an unknown Sith Knight on final approach to the Fourth Moon of Utapau
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To expand on the Fourth Moon of Utapau beyond what is afforded in canon
- Image Credit: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/File:Banta_Four.jpg- The Star Wars 1 comic by Mike Mayhew
- Canon: Fourth Moon of Utapau
- Links: Kessil (the Moon's capital) - Utapau Alchemy Castle - Janick Beauchamp's homestead on the Fourth Moon of Utapau
- Astronomical Location Name: Fourth Moon of Utapau
- Classification: Moon
- Location: Utapau system, orbiting Utapau
- Rotational Period: 20 hours
- Orbital Period: 23 days (around Utapau) 351 standard days (Utapau around its star)
- Size: Small (~6,000km diameter)
- Gravity: 1/3 standard
- Affiliation: N/A
- Population: Minimally populated (ca. 75,000 residents)
- Demographics: 32% Utai, 25% Pau'an, 12% human, 12% Amani, 19% other species (all immigrated)
- Climate: Temperate
- Accessibility: Open to the public, despite its distance from the Rimma Trade Route, with no moon-specific defenses
- Primary terrain: Plateaus (separated by crevasses and canyons)
- Description: The Fourth Moon of Utapau (out of nine) is a moon where crevasses and canyons are common, and the remaining landmasses are on plateaus, sometimes forested and often divided by bodies of water. Strong winds on the poles can make travel to the polar regions of the planet difficult. The capital, Kessil, is home to half the population of the moon, with the other half scattered among villages specializing in various materials: one village lived off its brick kiln, a few others lived off its quarries of marble (the most prized of the varieties quarried on the Fourth Moon of Utapau were purple and teal marble) or granite, a few others still will live off timber. Most of the settlements and vegetation are in the equatorial band, covering roughly the middle ~45 degrees in latitude out of 180, due to the winds being less intense there. Also, due to the low pressure of the planetoid, a breath mask was often required but the thin air did not require a pressure suit. As a result, virtually every building on the moon includes pressurization as part of a standard life support suite.
N/A
POINTS OF INTEREST
Kessil: Located at the northern edge of the moon's equatorial band, it is the capital of the moon and its only settlement larger than a village since it is home to roughly half the population of the moon. It is also home to the moon's only spaceport, which is more specialized in freight than in passenger traffic. Also two important buildings in the town are the Jedi-Bendu Temple, where the main administrative offices for the moon are located, and the Utapau Alchemy Castle, the residence of one Janick Beauchamp, as well as the headquarters of the Utai Magic Circle.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Fourth Moon of Utapau was colonized in the wake of the Massacre at Ossus, with the colonization effort being led by the Valor and Starkiller families, two wealthy families that produced Jedi by 130 ABY. Thus for residents of the Utapau system, just as Obi-Wan Kenobi and General Grievous were historically significant figures, so are Akira Valor and Kane, Annikin and Deak Starkiller. While also housing a temple which became known as the Jedi-Bendu Temple, the unfinished temple was also the target of a One Sith raid, where Deak Starkiller was killed, the Starkillers fled the planetoid to Aquilae, while the Valors remained. In the turmoil caused, the residents of Utapau proper sought to wrest control from the NJO remnants, and the Valor family was powerless to stop the Pau'ans and the Utai from taking control of the moon and by 137 ABY the Valor family was but an ordinary human family among a mass of Pau'ans and Utai, relatively speaking. It was also in the post-One Sith-era that the Pau'ans and the Utai began to exploit the moon's natural resources and was, in fact, the main area of contention between the NJO remnants and the local authorities.
In the decades to follow, the moon would flourish were it not from its thin atmosphere and its correspondingly low atmospheric pressure, which made it so that most residents needed breathing masks to live even though the gases themselves were breathable. As a result, the planet's capacity to sustain life is limited and most of its native food production has been done in underground, hydroponic facilities, much as it has been done on Utapau proper. For the next three centuries to follow, the population on the moon never grew beyond 60,000 and, at the beginning of the Four-Hundred-Year Darkness, many of the residents of Kessil that weren't Pau'ans or Utai sought refuge in the smaller settlements in the countryside. The economic activities slowed to a crawl during the pandemic, and the population remained in the low-to-mid-five-figure range for centuries, until roughly 750 ABY, where populations started rising again.
The moon saw its golden age (in relative terms) right by the end of the Four-Hundred-Year Darkness, since the construction materials businesses boomed especially on Utapau but also all over its sector due to the need to rebuild much of the buildings left in poor state of repair, which also led to an expansion of the industrial base of the moon. The capital, Kessil, also saw an increase of wealth by 849 ABY due to the construction of a new district catering to the upper class, New Barkhesh, but also class-based tensions have increased around the capital as a result.
GOVERNMENT, ECONOMY & SOCIETY
- Native Species: None
- Immigrated species: Utai, Pau'ans, humans, Amani
- Demonym: Utapaun
- Government: Federal republic (each settlement elects its own council, but the heads of the settlements convene in moon-wide affairs; otherwise, the government is heavily decentralized)
- Affiliation: N/A
- Wealth: Medium: the trade of construction materials, while providing a steady stream of income to the moon, the Fourth Moon of Utapau is a marginal player in the galactic construction materials market due to the marginal production
- Stability: Medium-High, although the moon is pretty segregated in terms of socio-economic resident status, thus causing tensions in an otherwise safe area
- Freedom & Oppression: The social atmosphere is fairly relaxed; where tensions arise between settlements, the settlements involved often ignore each other
- Primary Languages: Basic, Utapese, Utai
- Major Imports: Foodstuffs, high technology
- Major Exports: Duracrete, dimension stone, timber
- Notable PC residents: Janick Beauchamp
The Pau'ans living on the moon, just as with those living on Utapau proper, are rather nocturnal by nature, and hence many of the retail outfits on the moon have opening hours well into the night, and also workplaces with significant Utai workforces are, as a result, somewhat dark, but not dark enough to pose that much incomfort to the non-Utai workforces. Which made the lives of the residents from other species much easier since most of them worked in daylight hours. As a result several of the moon's main nightlife facilities like holovid theaters are designed with Pau'ans in mind, and hence take great care in acoustics, much more than humans or most Near-Human species would. As a result of the heavy influences of the species that lived elsewhere in the system, it carries a set of implications in different spheres, beyond the pickiness of soundproofing when constructing buildings that are expected to see heavy Pau'an usage, such as wind farms, which are common sights among the edges of the habitable areas due to the strength of the winds in those regions.
For instance, the local residents consider strapless clothing to be exotic, even the non-Pau'ans, due to the Pau'ans usually wearing protective earpieces as a result of their heightened sound sensitivity, as well as the strong winds on the moon. Also, due to the historical dominance of Pau'ans over the society of the whole system, certain mannerisms are often common among inter-settlement disputes, and sometimes even interpersonal disputes: they often tended to ignore each other until a new development occurs in a conflict, and to keep the conflicts low-key when they can't ignore each other.
In recent years, the arrival of off-world wealthy residents was perceived as a perturbation of the social order that existed until then, causing conflict with the native Pau'ans, complaining about the gentrification of their capital on the moon, and the wealthier off-worlders. However, Utai were already living in the system as part of the working classes and seem to be more willing to welcome off-world sources of wealth. As a result, even though class segregation is oten perceived as a source of instability, the Utai are the least affected by the social troubles. In short, today's life in the Fourth Moon of Utapau is typical of life in a neighborhood afflicted by gentrification.
[member="Mahet"] - Since it is an astronomical object and not a planet, it should be placed in the Locations board.
