Klee`shlyoo`hshee

Klee`shlyoo`hshee was a planet in the Xoquon sector and a member world of the Golden Empire. The home of the Wooshlyhee, Klee`shlyoo`hshee was devastated during the Nightmare War by an invasion of Skavik under the command of Merita Ot'kyn and Voara Culee.

Geography
Much of Klee`shlyoo`hshee was heavily forested prior to 149 ABY. Its trees were tall and wide, and though they did not rival the s of, they could still reach hundreds of meters in height. Many insects dwelled in these trees, and were a primary food source for Wooshylee and other species. The canopies of trees were thick and leafy, leaving most of the forest floors in perpetual shadow even during daylight hours.

Klee`shlyoo`hshee's plains were wide and generally level, though areas closer to the equator had rolling hills and deep gorges. Cave networks occurred all over the planet's surface, and some led into enormous underground caverns and lakes.

When the Reawakened attacked Klee`shlyoo`hshee in 149 ABY, the planet was largely deforested and most of its cities leveled. In the aftermath of the war, the Golden Empire assisted efforts to replant the burned forests and rebuild cities for the devastated Wooshlyhee population.

Society and culture
Wooshlyhee society before 149 ABY was largely divided between urban and rural settlements. Urban society centered around large and technologically modern cities like those elsewhere in the galaxy, including s and manufacturing facilities. Rural settlements tended to be in or on the border of Klee`shlyoo`hshee's forests and include multilevel homes built into and around the trees themselves. A distinct cultural divide separated the two groups; urban Wooshlyhee viewed their rural brethren as simpler, more backward people, while rural Wooshlyhee felt the city-dwellers had forsaken an important part of their heritage purely for convenience.

History
Geologists believed something in the soil of Klee`shlyoo`hshee allowed its forests to grow as densely and as tall as they did. Efforts to duplicate the effect with non-native plants met mixed success, leading the same geologists to adopt different positions on the issue, with some clinging to the soil theory while others believed it was a unique combination of the soil and the plants themselves. Some even believed the combination was impossible to explain without taking into account other ecosystem factors, such as bacteria, fungi, and rainfall patterns and water content. Whatever the reason, Klee`shlyoo`hshee became a heavily forested world long before the Wooshlyee achieved sentience, and their culture developed in that environment.

Wooshlyee society originally developed in the higher levels of the trees, where the predators which threatened the Wooshlyhee themselves could not reach their prey. This existence also allowed the Wooshlyhee access to their favorite food source, the tree-dwelling insects. After they began to craft tools and weapons, the Wooshlyhee returned to Klee`shlyoo`hshee's surface and began to develop larger communities while warding off or hunting down their predators.

Technological progression allowed the Wooshlyhee to clear some of the trees around the open plains to make room for cities. This development was not greeted positively by all, and sociologists marked this point as the beginning of what would become the cultural separation between urban and rural Wooshlyhee. But the cities developed, and trade with them.

By 110 ABY, Klee`shlyoo`hshee was industrialized, though it retained an atypically large percentage of forest on its landmasses relative to other industrialized worlds in the galaxy. The Golden Empire arrived in that year, and the Wooshlyhee agreed to join it. Most urban Wooshlyhee developed a trade network with offworlders for foodstuffs and hardwoods, receiving technology in turn; some rural Wooshlyhee incorporated new technology into their cities, but remained steadfastly in the woods, living a "simpler life".

Klee`shlyoo`hshee's relatively isolated position in the Xoquon sector kept it away from most of the Empire's early wars, and even the Ssi-ruuvi Incursion did not reach it. However, in 149 ABY, Klee`shlyoo`hshee was one of the first victims of the Nightmare War. A group of Veracht infiltrators destroyed the planet's shield generators, opening it to assault by a Skavik army. Most Wooshlyhee cities were destroyed, and the rear guard left on the planet burned many of the forests. Millions of Wooshlyhee were killed, leaving the survivors to form an underground resistance until the Empire returned with a vengeance and massacred the occupiers.

After the war, Klee`shlyoo`hshee experienced an influx of relief assistance, including labor droids and workers to rebuild the cities and agricultural specialists to sow the seeds of new forests.