Junker Pugn
Droid Toyed
This report expands on the little known brown dwarf star Goroth Beta in the Goroth System.
Goroth was not shown on either source map. The Christophsis System mismatch reminds us the maps won’t match exactly so the Goroth System is shown assigned to the nearest Mid Rim hex with only two other systems.
Image Sources:
Name: Rubac
Region: Mid-Rim
System: Goroth System
Suns: 2, Goroth Alpha and Goroth Beta, M-Type and Y-Type
Orbital Position: close, 1st planet, 6 million km orbit, habitable zone
Moons: none. Planetary debris in orbit
System Features: Goroth Alpha orbits Goroth Beta at 340 light mins distance. Goroth Alpha has 4 planets (documented in canon). Goroth Beta has its own planet Rubac and an icy asteroid belt. In the same sector as canon Vestor Nebula.
Coordinates: Between Maramere and Tythe/Nelvaan, in the Maramere hex
Rotational Period: does not rotate (tidally locked per brown dwarf reference)
Orbital Period: 0.67 days
Class: Terrestrial
Diameter: 9,000 km
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable) inside two craters; Type IV elsewhere
Climate: Rubac once had a more Standard size and atmosphere. But firstly it orbited too close to its star, eliminating its water and atmosphere before the star had cooled sufficiently for Rubac to fall within its habitable zone. Once it was theoretically habitable the planet was hit by a giant icy comet that launched most of the Rubac mantle and crust into space and produced off-centre impact and spall craters on either side of the planet’s core. As the bared iron-rich core cooled it acquired remanence from the star’s prevailing magnetosphere. Meanwhile a highly brecciated ‘crust’ reformed from returning ejecta that continues to supply meteorite strikes until today.
The vaporized comet created a comprehensive atmosphere in each of the two deep divots, or Wunes. The troposphere does not extend to the highly elevated badlands; unrelenting ionization of the upper atmosphere by the sun also prevents skywave radio communication between the Wunes. The climate in each Wune is dictated by the distance from the unsetting sun, ranging from radiant sandy desert in the north to icy twilight in the south. Winds blow ever northwards across the Wune, rises with the heat, and expand as a jetstream heading south to begin the cycle again. Rainfall is random, frequent and short-lived over the middle latitudes, linked to variations in the solar activity facing the planet during its 16-hour year.
Gravity: 0.7 of standard
Primary Terrain: Most of Rubac is monumental badlands with up to sixty kilometres of vertical relief. The relatively smooth floor of each Wune features a band of moss or lichen at middle latitudes that thickly plasters the iron-rich rubble on the east and west flanks of each circular crater-centred sea. Interi Wune features pale blue-green lichen (+); The smaller Eszit Wune features forest green moss (+).
Native Species: The only native species are motile mosses and lichens that respond to a wide variety of stimuli. This includes wind (aerotaxis), chemicals (chemotaxis), sound (barotaxis), electric current (galvanotaxis), moisture (hydrotaxis), light (phototaxis), temperature (thermotaxis) and physical contact (thigmotaxis). Rare examples of complex moss behaviour, such as dancing to music or hiding from warm-blooded beings, may even resemble sentience. On a more practical level, many mosses and lichens have a form of phototaxis adapted to dodging meteorites. When the additional light produced by a meteor’s ablation is not moving across the sky it signals time to move.
Immigrated Species: Gran, Humans and Jawas migrated to the planet centuries ago, and now live within the Wunes. The Gran engage in primarily agricultural pursuits while the Humans carry out a variety of roles including managing a diversely populated spaceport in Interi Wune. A 1,500km treacherous and airless northern path between the Wunes is traversed by long range trekker droids who maintain communication repeater stations between the two biospheres. The droids are maintained in turn by two clans of Jawas relocated to the northern deserts specifically for this purpose.
Primary Language: Galactic Standard Basic mingled with agrarian terms and idioms borrowed from the almost extinct Gran language. The Jawas also maintain their own trade and social lingua.
Government: Gran Republic with Protectorate aspect. The advice and oversight that each crater offers to the other is explained further under “Culture”, below.
Population: 14.3 million
Major Imports: include most items that cannot be created by a blacksmith, a farmer, or by recycling. Droids traffic imports and iron goods along with agrarian supplies between the Wunes. Very rarely they might transport a citizen in stasis, however this would be in violation of quarantine.
Major Exports:
Major Locations:
Image Sources: first image, second image.
Rubaccas lead simple, mostly rural lives with a strong focus on family. However almost every citizen of Interi Wune is also linked to one citizen of Eszit Wune by two-way radio. The planet has evolved without any mass media, each citizen relying on a single ‘muse’ to provide additional colour throughout his life. These bonds are as strong as family, yet are not limited to being of the same race.
Each Wune on Rubac is governed by a traditional Gran government, with other races abiding by its proven peaceful model. This is highly centralized and reflects on all aspects of daily life in a very paternal way. This ensures support is never far when it is needed, however it is often described as stifling by races used to greater freedoms. Further, each Wune acts to protect the other remotely by calling on parallel citizen-muses to respond to calls for help.
Rubaccas frequently scan the sky above for meteor showers and carry a whistle to warn others. Travel, for all but the most foolhardy or precognizant, is limited to the vicinity of their protective lodestone trilithon homes and a network of bunkers spaced out at regular intervals along the roads. The outside walls of these homes are often decorated with lichen or moss shaped like the inhabitant’s favorite things and those of the inhabitant’s muse. To an outsider it may just look like a mess of moss or lichen.
As a result of the correlation between rainfall and the solar orbit cycle, “sleep hours” for farmers often become aligned with the daily rain. However as solar intensity changes across the sun this uneven rain cycle quickly makes a mockery of formal timekeeping. A Rubac farmer can rarely tell you what year it is.
Motile mosses and lichens with different taxis are grafted together for a game not unlike holochess. The rules are decided upon by the participants weeks or months in advance to allow sufficient time for horticulture. The whole family, and sometimes neighbours, participate in sourcing, growing and testing these creations.
Technology:
Rubac is mostly an iron-age agrarian civilization boosted by hydroponic techniques and sustained by constant recycling. The Jawas in the north maintain more advanced technology of the ancient heavy iron trekker droids. Every citizen wears an incongruous Lobot-style headset that covers one ear for communication with their assigned muse living in the other Wune. Anything else on the technology spectrum may be found at Interi Spaceport. Its capitol building even boasts a HoloNet access point.
History:
Goroth Beta was starmapped a long time ago however brown dwarf stars offered scant hope of finding a habitable planet. Furthermore, the nearby Vestor Pulsar complicated hyperspace in the region, delaying exploration. Mining consortiums did eventually visit following the colonization of Goroth Prime but they quickly gave up on the bland iron planet that would later be known as Rubac and the outer frozen-gas asteroid belt. It was not until around 1000 BBY during the expansionist period of the Gran from Kinyen that the first settlers came to a place they would call New Kinyen. The live export carrier Dol E got lost on its way to Malastare and took refuge in the crater that became known as Interi Wune. By the time rescue parties caught up to the Dol E its passengers had already come to call New Kinyen “home”. Later the Gran of (Old) Kinyen retreated to isolationism, and the Gran of Rubac aligned themselves as an outpost of the Gran Protectorate of Malastare.
The original Gran settlers built trilithon homes of lodestone to protect them from most of the daily meteorite strikes. Prospectors of other races soon followed when rubac crystals were discovered deep within the lodestones. When the bottom fell out of the rubac crystal market a lot of the prospectors stayed, joining the Gran to farm mosses and lichens. Some set up businesses around Interi Spaceport.
The population expanded into Eszit Wune in search of potential cash crops among its unique mosses. Satellites could not survive the orbital debris and radio waves could not penetrate the planet’s ionosphere so a series of microwave repeaters were installed for communication between the Wunes. Trekker droids were introduced to maintain the stations, and Jawas were introduced to maintain the droids. Twenty-five gigantic trilithons were originally installed in each of the northern deserts to house the Jawas. The planet would ultimately become known to all by its Jawaese name, Rubac, meaning ‘rust’.
These communities remained unchanged for a millennium. A few Gran elders participated in events at Malastare during the rise of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine; the Galactic Empire later installed a tax collector from Malastare; then Gran-style self-government was implemented in the time of the New Republic. Interi Spaceport was knocked out early during the Yuuzhan Vong war leaving the brown dwarf star’s planet ignored, without affiliation, for centuries. The spaceport was finally reopened in 410 ABY to provide supplies to other planets during the galactic reconstruction.
A Jawa Sith made herself known among the Jawas of Eszit Desert around 413 ABY. Naming herself “Darth Pugn”, she left a trail of death-by-mass hysteria on her way through Interi Spaceport to the wider galaxy beyond.
Civilian life had largely returned to normal when Darth Pugn breached a quarantine blockade of Rubac in 438 ABY bearing the Gulag Virus. Dying before she could reach her home in Eszit Wune, she still triggered the infection of most of the twenty million inhabitants of Enteri Wune.
The psychological co-dependency of the Gran upon others meant extinction of the remaining Gran in Interi Wune was imminent. Upon the instigation of Darth Pugn’s droid-lightsaber L3P0, the Eszit Wune provincial government quickly acted to connect its population with survivors via radio, enabling each to act as a life coach for the survivor. This averted the immediate disaster.
The radio connection became a source of ongoing inspiration to the inhabitants of both Wunes. Fairly soon every single Gran inhabitant had a mentor living a similar existence in the other Wune, even as local Gran family and social life returned to normal. Over the subsequent centuries of galactic isolation the planet’s other communities took up the practice, until even the Jawas each had individual muses to listen to who lived parallel lives.
The radio connection became a source of ongoing inspiration to the inhabitants of both Wunes. Fairly soon every single Gran inhabitant had a mentor living a similar existence in the other Wune, even as local Gran family and social life returned to normal. Over the subsequent centuries of galactic isolation the planet’s other communities took up the practice, until even the Jawas each had individual muses to listen to who lived parallel lives.
It was a life unchanging until ABY 844, when the meteors stopped falling. After millennia of witnessing a meteorite strike every day somewhere on the lands between the horizons, suddenly they saw none. At first denied as statistical, it was later investigated. The debris remained in orbit; it just wasn’t falling. After several weeks it became fact. Braver Rubaccas ventured away from their homes for the first time.
But it was a lie. On a day called Taungsday, twelve weeks’ worth of meteorites fell. Many of Rubacca’s new explorers died that day; far more Rubaccas simply disappeared.
The governments moved quickly to reconnect the Rubacca who remained, knowing the Gran potential for fatal mourning. Leaders among the stolen Rubaccas were also equal to the task, adapting their headsets for mass communication. They rallied everyone together and eventually herded them home.
Ultimately little changed on Rubac, excepting a broader understanding of the galaxy, a greater appreciation of home, and an unshakeable mistrust in the meteors. Today the planet remains isolated but its inhabitants maintain sufficient trade to keep it from fading from memory completely.
Notable PCs: Darth Pugn (c. 428 ABY), Junker Pugn, L3P0.
Intent: Rubac provides an origin for an unworldly yet ambitious Jawa (Junker Pugn) who is culturally inclined to listen to his muse, an extremely contrite protocol droid (L3P0). Other roleplayers may find Rubac provides unique opportunities to engage parallel pre-Virus and post-Virus societies with a unique technology-based codependency. For inspiration, policing, meddling, or dominion.
“The Goroth system was one of a dozen systemsstarwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_system/Legends within the Trans-Nebular Zone of the Trans-Nebular sector. As the Vestor pulsar made this whole area of hyperspace a “dead zone”, travelling was rather difficult. The system could usually be reached with two- or three-leg jumps…”
“…The system had two suns: Goroth Alpha, a standard, main-sequence red-orange star, most commonly referred to as “the sun” or “K’Len” by the Gorothites. The second star was Goroth Beta, a brown dwarf at the most outward orbital position. The system had four planets, one of them, Goroth Prime having spawned sentient life.”
Goroth Alpha and its planet Goroth Prime are well-documented in the galactic literature. The once-beautiful planet Goroth Prime was reduced to a self-staffing mining colony long before the Gulag Virus struck. With its Type II atmosphere toxic to non-Gorothites, it remains little more than a hyperbarite mining outpost today. Contrarily, Goroth Beta is oft misquoted:
“Goroth Beta was … a gas giant that never ignited into a starhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Goroth_system,”
“it had some nuclear activity but was considered lifeless.“
These statements imply Goroth Beta is not a star. However the reference recognizes the inaccuracies of these previous surveys, highlighting “The canonical diameter for this brown dwarf [225,000km] is scientifically impossible.http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Goroth_Beta“
This new report provides an update on the Goroth Beta system.
“…The system had two suns: Goroth Alpha, a standard, main-sequence red-orange star, most commonly referred to as “the sun” or “K’Len” by the Gorothites. The second star was Goroth Beta, a brown dwarf at the most outward orbital position. The system had four planets, one of them, Goroth Prime having spawned sentient life.”
Goroth Alpha and its planet Goroth Prime are well-documented in the galactic literature. The once-beautiful planet Goroth Prime was reduced to a self-staffing mining colony long before the Gulag Virus struck. With its Type II atmosphere toxic to non-Gorothites, it remains little more than a hyperbarite mining outpost today. Contrarily, Goroth Beta is oft misquoted:
“Goroth Beta was … a gas giant that never ignited into a starhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Goroth_system,”
“it had some nuclear activity but was considered lifeless.“
These statements imply Goroth Beta is not a star. However the reference recognizes the inaccuracies of these previous surveys, highlighting “The canonical diameter for this brown dwarf [225,000km] is scientifically impossible.http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Goroth_Beta“
This new report provides an update on the Goroth Beta system.
The Trans-Nebula Sector of the Mid Rim is shown on this maphttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Essential_Atlas_Online_Companion which is overlaid on the SWRP Chaos map , aligning the Iskalon and Zolan systems:
Goroth was not shown on either source map. The Christophsis System mismatch reminds us the maps won’t match exactly so the Goroth System is shown assigned to the nearest Mid Rim hex with only two other systems.
Image Sources:
The planet Rubac is the sole named satellite of the tiny brown dwarf, Goroth Beta, the second star of the Goroth System.
The Goroth System is found in the Mid Rim Region near Maramere and Tythe/Nelvaan. Rubac lies in a habitable orbital position a mere 6 million kilometers from Goroth Beta. The planet has no moons although much planetary debris remains in orbit. The binary Goroth System features Goroth Beta orbiting Goroth Alpha at a distance of 340 light-minutes, far beyond four other planets that orbit Goroth Alpha. Goroth Beta has just 1 planet of its own (Rubac) and an icy outer asteroid belt. The second planet orbiting Goroth Alpha, Goroth Prime, hosts a native species called Gorothites, who were never interested in Rubac when they had the chance to explore as their own planet had been far more bountiful. The Goroth System’s galactic coordinates can be seen on the map above. It is also close to Vestor Pulsar in the Vestor Nebula which is both a beacon and an obstacle in hyperspace.
Rubac is tidally locked to its star in the manner of some moons. This means it has no rotational period, its ‘northern’ hemisphere basking in constant daylight. It races around its sun in an orbital period of just 16 hours along an almost circular path (10-6 eccentricity).
The terrestrial class planet has a diameter of almost 9,000 kilometres. It has twice Standard density but its small size means just 70% of Standard gravity is felt at the surface. A Type I (breathable) atmosphere exists only within two vast craters, Interi Wune and Eszit Wune, leaving the rest of the planet exposed to the Type IV vacuum of space. The red to infra-red light from Rubac, less than 4% of the size of a Standard sun, is filtered to brown by fine dust in the upper atmosphere of the Wunes.
The Goroth System is found in the Mid Rim Region near Maramere and Tythe/Nelvaan. Rubac lies in a habitable orbital position a mere 6 million kilometers from Goroth Beta. The planet has no moons although much planetary debris remains in orbit. The binary Goroth System features Goroth Beta orbiting Goroth Alpha at a distance of 340 light-minutes, far beyond four other planets that orbit Goroth Alpha. Goroth Beta has just 1 planet of its own (Rubac) and an icy outer asteroid belt. The second planet orbiting Goroth Alpha, Goroth Prime, hosts a native species called Gorothites, who were never interested in Rubac when they had the chance to explore as their own planet had been far more bountiful. The Goroth System’s galactic coordinates can be seen on the map above. It is also close to Vestor Pulsar in the Vestor Nebula which is both a beacon and an obstacle in hyperspace.
Rubac is tidally locked to its star in the manner of some moons. This means it has no rotational period, its ‘northern’ hemisphere basking in constant daylight. It races around its sun in an orbital period of just 16 hours along an almost circular path (10-6 eccentricity).
The terrestrial class planet has a diameter of almost 9,000 kilometres. It has twice Standard density but its small size means just 70% of Standard gravity is felt at the surface. A Type I (breathable) atmosphere exists only within two vast craters, Interi Wune and Eszit Wune, leaving the rest of the planet exposed to the Type IV vacuum of space. The red to infra-red light from Rubac, less than 4% of the size of a Standard sun, is filtered to brown by fine dust in the upper atmosphere of the Wunes.
Region: Mid-Rim
System: Goroth System
Suns: 2, Goroth Alpha and Goroth Beta, M-Type and Y-Type
Orbital Position: close, 1st planet, 6 million km orbit, habitable zone
Moons: none. Planetary debris in orbit
System Features: Goroth Alpha orbits Goroth Beta at 340 light mins distance. Goroth Alpha has 4 planets (documented in canon). Goroth Beta has its own planet Rubac and an icy asteroid belt. In the same sector as canon Vestor Nebula.
Coordinates: Between Maramere and Tythe/Nelvaan, in the Maramere hex
Rotational Period: does not rotate (tidally locked per brown dwarf reference)
Orbital Period: 0.67 days
Class: Terrestrial
Diameter: 9,000 km
Atmosphere: Type I (breathable) inside two craters; Type IV elsewhere
Climate: Rubac once had a more Standard size and atmosphere. But firstly it orbited too close to its star, eliminating its water and atmosphere before the star had cooled sufficiently for Rubac to fall within its habitable zone. Once it was theoretically habitable the planet was hit by a giant icy comet that launched most of the Rubac mantle and crust into space and produced off-centre impact and spall craters on either side of the planet’s core. As the bared iron-rich core cooled it acquired remanence from the star’s prevailing magnetosphere. Meanwhile a highly brecciated ‘crust’ reformed from returning ejecta that continues to supply meteorite strikes until today.
The vaporized comet created a comprehensive atmosphere in each of the two deep divots, or Wunes. The troposphere does not extend to the highly elevated badlands; unrelenting ionization of the upper atmosphere by the sun also prevents skywave radio communication between the Wunes. The climate in each Wune is dictated by the distance from the unsetting sun, ranging from radiant sandy desert in the north to icy twilight in the south. Winds blow ever northwards across the Wune, rises with the heat, and expand as a jetstream heading south to begin the cycle again. Rainfall is random, frequent and short-lived over the middle latitudes, linked to variations in the solar activity facing the planet during its 16-hour year.
Gravity: 0.7 of standard
Primary Terrain: Most of Rubac is monumental badlands with up to sixty kilometres of vertical relief. The relatively smooth floor of each Wune features a band of moss or lichen at middle latitudes that thickly plasters the iron-rich rubble on the east and west flanks of each circular crater-centred sea. Interi Wune features pale blue-green lichen (+); The smaller Eszit Wune features forest green moss (+).
Native Species: The only native species are motile mosses and lichens that respond to a wide variety of stimuli. This includes wind (aerotaxis), chemicals (chemotaxis), sound (barotaxis), electric current (galvanotaxis), moisture (hydrotaxis), light (phototaxis), temperature (thermotaxis) and physical contact (thigmotaxis). Rare examples of complex moss behaviour, such as dancing to music or hiding from warm-blooded beings, may even resemble sentience. On a more practical level, many mosses and lichens have a form of phototaxis adapted to dodging meteorites. When the additional light produced by a meteor’s ablation is not moving across the sky it signals time to move.
Immigrated Species: Gran, Humans and Jawas migrated to the planet centuries ago, and now live within the Wunes. The Gran engage in primarily agricultural pursuits while the Humans carry out a variety of roles including managing a diversely populated spaceport in Interi Wune. A 1,500km treacherous and airless northern path between the Wunes is traversed by long range trekker droids who maintain communication repeater stations between the two biospheres. The droids are maintained in turn by two clans of Jawas relocated to the northern deserts specifically for this purpose.
Primary Language: Galactic Standard Basic mingled with agrarian terms and idioms borrowed from the almost extinct Gran language. The Jawas also maintain their own trade and social lingua.
Government: Gran Republic with Protectorate aspect. The advice and oversight that each crater offers to the other is explained further under “Culture”, below.
Population: 14.3 million
- Interi Wune: 4.7 million Gran, 2.3 million Humans, 0.01 million Jawas, 0.9 million Others.
- Eszit Wune: 5.1 million Gran, 1.1 million Humans, 0.01 million Jawas. Others left in Eszit Wune before the quarantine have become subsumed or gone extinct.
Major Imports: include most items that cannot be created by a blacksmith, a farmer, or by recycling. Droids traffic imports and iron goods along with agrarian supplies between the Wunes. Very rarely they might transport a citizen in stasis, however this would be in violation of quarantine.
Major Exports:
- Rubac crystals: these deep brown hexaferrumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexaferrum iron crystals are mined by ‘rubacaires’, who facet them directly from beneath the exposed weathered surface of the planetary core and seal them immediately to slow their decay. A decorative rubac crystal’s surface slowly swirls and twinkles as its lattice degrades to more stable allotropes of iron. While they look utterly unlike rubat crystals, the confusion served to further inflate the rubac crystal rush that drew prospectors to the planet for a short time.
- Moss and lichen: different varieties are used to make armor padding, sponges, spices and poultices. One family of mosses is coveted for use in making rehydrating food portionshttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Survival_ration. New species are bred to create low maintenance pets.
Major Locations:
- Interi Spaceport lies on the western shore of the Interi Sea within Interi Wune. The spaceport hosts two million inhabitants, including half of the Humans of Interi Wune and most of the Others. They live under trilithons, or dolmens, each with a heavy lodestone lintel supported by two equally hefty lodestone walls. Much of the space traffic is based out of Rubac as the planet’s rural lifestyle is one of very few reasons to visit. Crime rates are low for an isolated space port, although bad things still happen, and offworlders are often blamed.
Image Sources: first image, second image.
- Eastern Moss, Western Moss, Eastern Lich and Western Lich refer to the fields of moss (in Eszit Wune) and lichen (in Interi Wune) that extend east and west from the central sea towards the talus slopes of each crater rim. Moss and lichen farmers live under lodestone trilithons laid out at intervals along branching paths dotted with meteor bunkers. Rumours persist of isolated farms not visited for generations, lichen that generates mind-altering odors, and moss that fires darts using compressed gas. Unfortunately meteor strikes discourage exploration away from the trodden path.
- Interi Sea and Eszit Sea fill the deepest centre of each Wune. Aquatic lichens and mosses provide food for introduced fish species that are harvested from the shore. Rubaccas do not use boats as they lack a strategy for dodging meteorite impacts at sea.
- Interi Wastes and Eszit Desert are the northern rubble-strewn sandy deserts of the two Wunes. Both deserts extend from the crater’s central sea to the talus slopes of the northern rim of the crater. The deserts are each home to a clan of Jawas that has grown and expanded over time. The Jawas live on tarpaulins suspended under ancient iron trilithons four stories tall. Each of the remaining twenty-two trilithons shields a thousand Jawas from all but the largest meteorites, and holds them above all but the largest avalanches that slump from the crater walls. The Jawas provide maintenance to the trekker droids that travel between the Wunes, both droid and Jawa suspended by bungee cord in case of emergency. They also farm moisture, mosses and lichens in the shadows of larger boulders to warn of meteorites, and for food. There is little to scavenge among the rubble, but sometimes their Jawa instincts drive them up the crater wall towards the limits of the atmosphere in search of stranded droids. “Rubac” is a Jawaese word for “rust”.
- Talus Slopes The unstable scree that flows down from the crater walls presents a constant risk of an avalanche. While there is evidence of huge mass flow deposits flowing hundreds of kilometers into the central crater sea, most slumps are smaller and more frequent, triggered by meteor impacts. In the north, trekker droids use repulsorlifts to move rapidly over the scree between their Jawa maintenance crews and the hiking trails that lead overland to the other Wune. Rain regularly falls on the northern Talus Slopes as the wind blows up the shaded face of the crater wall.
- Interi Durafrost and Eszit Tundra are the twilit plains south of the central crater seas in each Wune. Slow melting glaciers move north, slowly deposit scree and moraine into each sea as it slides down from the southern crater rim. These reaches have been visited extremely rarely, and briefly, by air, as the ice floes appear to provide no shelter from meteors, nor any sane reason to be there.
Rubaccas lead simple, mostly rural lives with a strong focus on family. However almost every citizen of Interi Wune is also linked to one citizen of Eszit Wune by two-way radio. The planet has evolved without any mass media, each citizen relying on a single ‘muse’ to provide additional colour throughout his life. These bonds are as strong as family, yet are not limited to being of the same race.
Each Wune on Rubac is governed by a traditional Gran government, with other races abiding by its proven peaceful model. This is highly centralized and reflects on all aspects of daily life in a very paternal way. This ensures support is never far when it is needed, however it is often described as stifling by races used to greater freedoms. Further, each Wune acts to protect the other remotely by calling on parallel citizen-muses to respond to calls for help.
Rubaccas frequently scan the sky above for meteor showers and carry a whistle to warn others. Travel, for all but the most foolhardy or precognizant, is limited to the vicinity of their protective lodestone trilithon homes and a network of bunkers spaced out at regular intervals along the roads. The outside walls of these homes are often decorated with lichen or moss shaped like the inhabitant’s favorite things and those of the inhabitant’s muse. To an outsider it may just look like a mess of moss or lichen.
As a result of the correlation between rainfall and the solar orbit cycle, “sleep hours” for farmers often become aligned with the daily rain. However as solar intensity changes across the sun this uneven rain cycle quickly makes a mockery of formal timekeeping. A Rubac farmer can rarely tell you what year it is.
Motile mosses and lichens with different taxis are grafted together for a game not unlike holochess. The rules are decided upon by the participants weeks or months in advance to allow sufficient time for horticulture. The whole family, and sometimes neighbours, participate in sourcing, growing and testing these creations.
Technology:
Rubac is mostly an iron-age agrarian civilization boosted by hydroponic techniques and sustained by constant recycling. The Jawas in the north maintain more advanced technology of the ancient heavy iron trekker droids. Every citizen wears an incongruous Lobot-style headset that covers one ear for communication with their assigned muse living in the other Wune. Anything else on the technology spectrum may be found at Interi Spaceport. Its capitol building even boasts a HoloNet access point.
History:
Goroth Beta was starmapped a long time ago however brown dwarf stars offered scant hope of finding a habitable planet. Furthermore, the nearby Vestor Pulsar complicated hyperspace in the region, delaying exploration. Mining consortiums did eventually visit following the colonization of Goroth Prime but they quickly gave up on the bland iron planet that would later be known as Rubac and the outer frozen-gas asteroid belt. It was not until around 1000 BBY during the expansionist period of the Gran from Kinyen that the first settlers came to a place they would call New Kinyen. The live export carrier Dol E got lost on its way to Malastare and took refuge in the crater that became known as Interi Wune. By the time rescue parties caught up to the Dol E its passengers had already come to call New Kinyen “home”. Later the Gran of (Old) Kinyen retreated to isolationism, and the Gran of Rubac aligned themselves as an outpost of the Gran Protectorate of Malastare.
The original Gran settlers built trilithon homes of lodestone to protect them from most of the daily meteorite strikes. Prospectors of other races soon followed when rubac crystals were discovered deep within the lodestones. When the bottom fell out of the rubac crystal market a lot of the prospectors stayed, joining the Gran to farm mosses and lichens. Some set up businesses around Interi Spaceport.
The population expanded into Eszit Wune in search of potential cash crops among its unique mosses. Satellites could not survive the orbital debris and radio waves could not penetrate the planet’s ionosphere so a series of microwave repeaters were installed for communication between the Wunes. Trekker droids were introduced to maintain the stations, and Jawas were introduced to maintain the droids. Twenty-five gigantic trilithons were originally installed in each of the northern deserts to house the Jawas. The planet would ultimately become known to all by its Jawaese name, Rubac, meaning ‘rust’.
These communities remained unchanged for a millennium. A few Gran elders participated in events at Malastare during the rise of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine; the Galactic Empire later installed a tax collector from Malastare; then Gran-style self-government was implemented in the time of the New Republic. Interi Spaceport was knocked out early during the Yuuzhan Vong war leaving the brown dwarf star’s planet ignored, without affiliation, for centuries. The spaceport was finally reopened in 410 ABY to provide supplies to other planets during the galactic reconstruction.
A Jawa Sith made herself known among the Jawas of Eszit Desert around 413 ABY. Naming herself “Darth Pugn”, she left a trail of death-by-mass hysteria on her way through Interi Spaceport to the wider galaxy beyond.
Civilian life had largely returned to normal when Darth Pugn breached a quarantine blockade of Rubac in 438 ABY bearing the Gulag Virus. Dying before she could reach her home in Eszit Wune, she still triggered the infection of most of the twenty million inhabitants of Enteri Wune.
The psychological co-dependency of the Gran upon others meant extinction of the remaining Gran in Interi Wune was imminent. Upon the instigation of Darth Pugn’s droid-lightsaber L3P0, the Eszit Wune provincial government quickly acted to connect its population with survivors via radio, enabling each to act as a life coach for the survivor. This averted the immediate disaster.
The radio connection became a source of ongoing inspiration to the inhabitants of both Wunes. Fairly soon every single Gran inhabitant had a mentor living a similar existence in the other Wune, even as local Gran family and social life returned to normal. Over the subsequent centuries of galactic isolation the planet’s other communities took up the practice, until even the Jawas each had individual muses to listen to who lived parallel lives.
The radio connection became a source of ongoing inspiration to the inhabitants of both Wunes. Fairly soon every single Gran inhabitant had a mentor living a similar existence in the other Wune, even as local Gran family and social life returned to normal. Over the subsequent centuries of galactic isolation the planet’s other communities took up the practice, until even the Jawas each had individual muses to listen to who lived parallel lives.
It was a life unchanging until ABY 844, when the meteors stopped falling. After millennia of witnessing a meteorite strike every day somewhere on the lands between the horizons, suddenly they saw none. At first denied as statistical, it was later investigated. The debris remained in orbit; it just wasn’t falling. After several weeks it became fact. Braver Rubaccas ventured away from their homes for the first time.
But it was a lie. On a day called Taungsday, twelve weeks’ worth of meteorites fell. Many of Rubacca’s new explorers died that day; far more Rubaccas simply disappeared.
The governments moved quickly to reconnect the Rubacca who remained, knowing the Gran potential for fatal mourning. Leaders among the stolen Rubaccas were also equal to the task, adapting their headsets for mass communication. They rallied everyone together and eventually herded them home.
Ultimately little changed on Rubac, excepting a broader understanding of the galaxy, a greater appreciation of home, and an unshakeable mistrust in the meteors. Today the planet remains isolated but its inhabitants maintain sufficient trade to keep it from fading from memory completely.
Notable PCs: Darth Pugn (c. 428 ABY), Junker Pugn, L3P0.
Intent: Rubac provides an origin for an unworldly yet ambitious Jawa (Junker Pugn) who is culturally inclined to listen to his muse, an extremely contrite protocol droid (L3P0). Other roleplayers may find Rubac provides unique opportunities to engage parallel pre-Virus and post-Virus societies with a unique technology-based codependency. For inspiration, policing, meddling, or dominion.
