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For other uses, see Ruusan.
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"I'm sick of this place. Things have gone bad ever since I got here."
Rain[4]

Ruusan was a planet in the Mid Rim most famous for the Ruusan campaign, the last stand of the Brotherhood of Darkness under Lord Kaan and the birthplace of Darth Bane's Order of the Sith Lords. The planet lent its name to the Ruusan Reformations enacted after the battle.

Characteristics[]

Ruusan with the Three Sisters

Planet Ruusan with the Three Sisters.

Ruusan was originally a temperate, pleasant world with rivers and forests.[2] Its atmosphere and gravity were compatible with Class Three planets.[6] It was inhabited by Ruusanians, Humans, and a strange sentient species known as Bouncers. Fauna included some insects and other bugs.[5]

The underground was rich in cesium, copper, iridium, iron, nickel, uranium and many other mineral deposits; in ancient times there was mining activity.[6] Ruusan's mineral deposits proved disappointing but it was the only source for the Ruusan crystal.

Ruusan had three moons, referred to by locals as the "Three Sisters." Smugglers claimed that at least one of the moons had ruins of an ancient civilization.[6]

Vegetation included some low-growing bushes with some scent; they had the potential to provide aromatic oils although nobody cared to enter this procedure. Lichen could grow on some rocks.[5]

In the mornings, the planet's landscape was painted in lavender and gold colors by the light of its rising sun.[5]

Astrographically, Ruusan belonged to one of the relatively young star systems of the Teraab sector, usually rich in metal; however Ruusan was not only at the edge of the sector, among other newborn stars and nebulae, but also proved to be poorer than other planets in nearby systems.[1]

History[]

The planet was first colonized between 15,000 BBY to 8000 BBY, sometime between the Kymoodon Era and Rianitus Period.[2]

While meeting with his ally Webb on Tatooine in 3643 BBY, Andronikos Revel remarked that if Exchange officer Sylas Wilkes, Revel's mutinous former first mate whom he was on-planet to kill, found out he was there, "it'll be like Ruusan all over again", suggesting some kind of conflict had taken place there by then.[7]

In 2200 BBY Ruusan was one of the ore-rich planets of the Teraab sector claimed by the Mining Guild, until the planet proved disappointing.[1] Owing to its distant astrographic location, focus shifted to richer worlds nearby, leaving a few settlements of few optimistic claim jumpers, fugitives, miners, farmers, and trappers by the end of the Light and Darkness War, who would be the ancestors of Ruusanians.[1][2] All in all, Ruusan had at least seven mines, which by the Imperial Period they all had been exploited and abandoned.[6]

Ruusan surface

The surface of Ruusan.

Ruusan was the site of seven battles between the Sith's Brotherhood of Darkness and the Jedi's Army of Light. After the last battle of Ruusan (1000 BBY) between the Jedi under Lord Hoth, and the Sith under Lord Skere Kaan, the Dark Lord of the Sith/Dark Lord of the Sith resolved to annihilate everyone, including himself, with a thought bomb. Much of the planet's surface, including vegetation and several cities, were destroyed, and remained a barren desert.[1]

After the battle had ended, Jedi Knight Johun Othone petitioned the Galactic Senate to construct a grand mausoleum containing the fallen warriors in the site of the massacre, called The Valley of the Jedi.[1]

Yoda-like Ruusan

The Valley of the Jedi.

Despite this, the expanding nebulae of the sector erased the hyperlanes connecting Ruusan[2] and the world was quickly forgotten, as the Galactic Republic turned inward. Isolation and crossbreeding amongst the inhabitants produced a near-Human population that became known as Ruusanians. Shifting nebulae within the stellar nursery of the Teraab soon erased hyperspace routes to Ruusan, leaving it inaccessible from the galaxy at large. Only the Mining Guild and, for different reasons, the Jedi Order, remembered Ruusan's history. Even those who heard about the Valley of the Jedi, like Yoda or Jerec, did not know its location.[1]

Reemergence[]

The Separatists briefly established a spy post over one of Ruusan's moons during the Clone Wars, but it was soon destroyed.[2] By the time of the Galactic Empire's reign, Ruusan was mostly forgotten.

Rediscovered by the smuggler Jerg in 11 BBY, the planet came to be used by independent spacers and merchants, and fugitives of the sector, as a base of operations.[5][1] The next year, Fort Nowhere was constructed by smugglers.[2] In 1 BBY, Rebel refugees from Sulon settled on the planet, following Jerg and Morgan Katarn.[5] The following years the colonists survived with cave farming and grazing animals such as gra. Although some of them exited to the badlands for grazing, it was too harsh to bother with exploration, and only the most curious ones had minimal contact with the native Bouncers.[8]

Jerec Sariss Ruusan

Jerec and Sariss on board the Vengeance above Ruusan, over a holomap of the planet.

The planet's isolation would end shortly after the Battle of Endor. The Dark Jedi Jerec, informed of the location of the Valley of the Jedi, came to the planet intending to claim the Valley's power for himself.[5] His Vengeance Battle Group performed surveys on the planet with probe droids; the operation necessitated the extermination of the smuggler colony. During the second phase of the survey, a tower was being built, and the Imperials looted the caves around the Valley for valuable artifacts in order to satisfy the Remnant and its nitpickers financially; an "archaeological work" which stirred up the spirits.[6]

At the end of that phase, Jerec himself arrived to the planet.[6] The Jedi Kyle Katarn, assisted by the spirit of Qu Rahn, managed to stop Jerec, slaying the Dark Jedi below the monuments that Othone had built centuries ago.[6]

After being beaten by a different dark jedi named Desann, Katarn would return to Ruusan in 12 ABY to reestablish his connection to the Force, during the confrontation of the Empire Reborn, and in 14 ABY, during the Disciples of Ragnos crisis to investigate the Valley of the Jedi for cult activity.[9]

The world was later targeted by the Yuuzhan Vong, who successfully invaded and occupied the planet over a year into their invasion of the galaxy. It would remain under Vong control until the end of the war.[2]

Behind the scenes[]

Jedi Temple stained glass concept art

Jedi Temple stained glass concept art in Star Wars: The Clone Wars The Complete Season Two

Ruusan appeared in the artwork by Wayne Lo titled "Unused Jedi Temple mosaic" for the second season of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. It was included in the production journal of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars The Complete Season Two. The concept art also depicted Valenthyne Farfalla leading the Army of Light, Lord Hoth and the death of Pernicar.[10] Parts of the mosaic can be seen, which includes Ruusan, in a room in "Lightsaber Lost," the eleventh episode of the second season of the series.[11]


Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

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