- Intent: Expand upon the lore of Talay while supplying a location that adds a unique aspect of Dathomiri Zabrak culture to Chaos.
- Image Credit: Bone Village at Night by Bill Zhang
- Canon: N/A
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- City Name: Shaol'mara
- Classification: Rural Town (Abandoned as of 859 ABY)
- Location: Talay
- Affiliation: Confederacy of Independent Systems; Witches of Dathomir (Mistwalker Clan)
- Population: Uninhabited (as of 860 ABY); Sparse (prior to 860 ABY)
- Demographics: Ex-patriots descended from the Nightbrothers and Nightsisters who fled from the decimation of the Witches of Dathomir, the Mistwalker Clan is predominantly composed of members of the Dathomirian species, being near-Zabrak hybrids formed through interspecies mating with human/near-human species.
- Wealth: Low. Shaol'mara was defined by a mixture of subsistence farmers and hunter-gatherers. The denizens largely dismissed the conveniences of modern technology in favor of the traditions and religious custom of their ancestral Dathomir.
- Stability: High. The Mistwalker Clan is led by an elder revered as the Shaol'ma'ka -- She Who Dwells In Darkness. Part village elder, part religious leader, the Shaol'ma'ka speaks for the Mistwalker Clan on all matters relating to village affairs and is considered the final authority on civil disputes. Law and order is maintained by the presence of Confederate Defense Forces.
- Freedom & Oppression: The Talay Dathomirians of the Mistwalker Clan practiced their native ancestor worship freely, without limitation or curtailment from the Confederacy. Internal policing were handled by the familial elders, with the Shaol'ma'ka serving as mediator as tribal disputes emerge that cannot be resolved by the families concerned. Children born to the Mistwalkers were subject to compulsory screening to determine Force Sensitivity, which is ordinarily achieved by annual visits by the Knights Obsidian to Shaol'mara and similar settlements across the planet. Those determined to have a high degree of Force potential were subject to removal for national service. The Shaol'ma'ka had decreed that this was a great honor upon one's family. Even among those not selected as having the requisite potential for Force Sensitivity, compulsory military service is expected of males when they come of age.
- Description: Originally a quaint, rustic village propped up in an isolated region of the planet, Shaol'mara occupied a relatively stable area of bogland that was marked by tepid swamps surrounding a river delta. The structures of the commune were spaced widely apart enough to create areas for crop cultivation. The northern border of the village extended into the swamp, while the southern tip contains fishing pylons with kayaks and canoes.
- Docks: Pictured above. Located along the southern edge of the village, where tributaries of the River Usk empty out into the Ja'loja Swamp, the docks featured a number of small kayaks and canoes used by traditional fishermen. Today, the docks have lapsed into disrepair.
- Zhaboka Arena: Similar in construction to the Nightbrother Arena on Dathomir, this was an open air, gladiatorial amphitheater where traditional K'thri martial arts were practiced alongside cultural dances and rituals important to the Mistwalker's ancestor worship.
- Temple of the Mists: In times past, before the Force Sensitives among them were pressed into national service for the Knights Obsidian, the Temple of the Mists was a place where shamen and witches of the Mistwalker Clan would summon the spirit ichor as part of their religious ceremonies. More recently, it served a more municipal purpose as the de facto supreme court from which the Shaol'ma'ka would hear tribal disputes.
- Landing Field: In those instances where Shaol'mara was visited by a small shuttle or air speeder, an area to the west of the village was left fallow for use as a landing field. For Knights Obsidian, and other off-world pilgrims. Today, nature has started to reclaim this fallow land.
None. As the village lies abandoned, there is no security present within or around the remains of the former township.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Shaol'mara had its roots in the Clone Wars. During the last days of the Old Republic, the planet Dathomir was subject to a number of assaults committed by the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The increasing acts of aggression and hostility triggered several departures from among the Nightbrothers and Nightsisters, who struggled to maintain their simple and ritualistic lifestyle among the wider galaxy. When the Nightsister Clan was nearly eradicated by the Confederates, the news prompted many of the wandering ex-patriots to seek shadowports in which to maintain a low profile for themselves.
A coven of Dathomiri ex-patriots arrived on Talay shortly after the Declaration of a New Order, originally at the shadowport of the City of Talay though the commune eventually took root in an isolated area of the planet. Over the next several generations, the culture and traditions of the Nightsisters and Nightbrothers began to evolve toward what would become recognizable as the Mistwalker Clan. This was greatly aided by the Gulag Plague, as during this time the village was at its cultural height -- this due to the fact that during this time the village retained the majority of its young adults, many of whom to that point would leave the village in search of job prospects in the City of Talay or off world. Instead, Shaol'mara achieved a cultural renaissance during this era, emerging out of the Four Hundred Years Darkness not as Dathomiri ex-patriots, but as their own, unique cultural identity as Talay practitioners of Dathomiri magic.
No longer were they Nightsisters or Nightbrothers, they were the Mistwalkers.
By 851 ABY, Shaol'mara was under the control of the Confederacy. Despite this, the village and its people continued to subsist as they had for centuries as the Mistwalker Clan. Viewed as primitive, the people of Shaol'mara are largely dismissive of modern technology in favor of traditional methods of hunting and farming. Datapads, comlinks, and other modern technologies are sparsely visible in the community, though the majority of the tools in use are far more ancient.
In 859 ABY, the Confederacy of Independent Systems began construction on a military base on the planet Talay. The military project included the imposition of a shield gate over the planet Talay, which caused concern for some denizens of the planet. Those anxieties seemed to become realized when, later that same year, an armed group identifying itself as the Vegemite Jedi Enclave led an assault on the shield gate. Guided by visions that another attack would be coming, the Shaol'maka led the Mistwalker Clan in an evacuation of the village and planet, in the same manner as their forebears had fled from the devastation on Dathomir generations before. That vision would prove truth, as the Agents of Chaos led an assault on the shield gate and the base on the planet below.
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