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SYSTEM: Duros system
TERRAIN: Waste Dumps
LANGUAGE: Durosian (Durese)
SPECIES: Duros
POINTS OF INTEREST: Valley of Royalty
The Duros are known as some of the best space pilots and navigators in the galaxy. Since the dawn of the Old Republic they have traveled the hyperspace lanes. Thus they have forgotten their homeworld and neglected its care as they searched for adventure among the stars.
Tens of thousands of years before the Galactic Civil War, Duros culture entered a golden age. The temperate, terrestial planet was providing the world with a bountiful food supply and abundant natural resources. Under the rule of Queen Rana, Duros scientists made profound breakthroughs in the science of interstellar travel. Within decades they had established orbital waystations and began to explore the unexplored space.
Queen Rana died at the age of 200 and her heir King Dassid continued his mothers policies of galactic expansion. he watched as more and more Duros relocated to space stations and far flung colony worlds.
Explorers from Duro were busy blazing new hyperspace rotes and encountering other early space travelers, such as the human Corellians. They also became less an less dependant on their homeworld. Many Duros questioned the need to take orders from an isolated and out-of-touch monarchy.
The Duro Shipping conglomerate agreed. They swiftly rebelled and wrestled the power away from the sitting ruler, Duchess Geneer. That meant from that day on the government was run by a coalition of megacroporations and their countless stockholders.
This mean bad news for Duro. Nearly all the worlds population took off and abandoned Duro to become galactic traders and pathfinders to enrich their home companies. Mammoth automated food factories sprang up on the surface of the planet , transporting their harvests to the six space cites orbiting the planet. This eventually led to the ecosystem failing causing millions of animal species such as Duro's legendary cannibal arachnid to vanish forever.
Most Duros didn't care about this. They continued to have an indelible sense of wanderlust, and the stars had become their new home. But when Emperor Palpatine rose to power, things became much worse.
The Imperial military seized the Duros system and its resources. They set up mines near the Valley of Royalty. Bubbling toxic waste was pumped into vast reservoirs and kept in check by towering duracrete towers. Clouds of acid smoke hung close to the splintered ground and mutant fefze beetles were the only creatures rugged enough to survive in the irradiated hellhole.
The Rebel Alliance tried to free Duro during the premature Battle of Vnas but the attack was a failure despite the good showing o the new Y-wing starfighters. It wasn't until after the Battle of Endor that the Empire left Duro in peace.
The planet will in truth never recover, but only the Duros historians and archaeologists mourn the loss. The rest of the red eyed race that is spread across the face of the galaxy have other worlds to visit, new routes to discover, and fresh stories to tell.