Waldragos

Waldragos

Waldragos was the homeworld of the Fyaar, a snowy planet in the and a member world of the Golden Empire.

Geography
Waldragos's surface was cold and snowy, though the snow was thicker in some parts than others. Most non-arboreal areas were tundra or taiga; some vegetation grew in most areas, sometimes in places not covered by snow, other times through the snow itself. All trees in Waldragos's thick forests were coniferous.

The mountains of Waldragos towered over the rest of the planet, with the tallest over ten kilometers. Both the higher points on the mountains and the world's ice caps were too cold even for the native Fyaar. Numerous herbivores and smaller predators thrived in the rest of the world, some of which were domesticated by the Fyaar as livestock. s from Mandos were introduced into Waldragos some time after 111 ABY.

The oceans of Waldragos were too cold for comfortable swimming, even for the Fyaar, except near the equator. A number of aquatic life forms thrived, and those nearest the surface became part of the diet of the Fyaar and other predators.

Society and culture
The isolationist Fyaar controlled their homeworld and the Waldo system prior to the arrival of the Golden Empire. Fyaar society stressed self-reliance, stoicism, and strength, and those societies which could not provide for themselves were either conquered or annexed into larger, stronger ones.

Under the rule of the Golden Empire, most Fyaar resented the Empire's rule, but protested it only by doing the bare minimum required of citizens or filing taxes at the last possible moment, and other such acts of bureaucratic annoyance. Some Fyaar actively rebelled against the Empire, although open, armed rebellion was put down harshly. The Fyaar were allowed free speech like all Royal citizens, and many took advantage of it to condemn the occupation. Due to the anti-Empire sentiment, Waldragos attracted very few other species as immigrants, even those adapted to the cold like the Iscali.

History
Waldragos entered an ice age some millennia before the Fyaar evolved to sentience. It was beginning to slowly recede as Fyaar society developed, which enabled the existence of tundra and taiga grass plains in some areas of Waldragos, and the corresponding emergence and proliferation of more species.

Fyaar societies spread over the planet, but incorporated nature into technology in many instances, rather than paving over one to make way for the other. Fyaar forest cities often had multiple levels, beginning at the ground and extending several stories up to the canopies, using support pylons and the trees themselves for stability. Those in the mountains were sometimes hollowed into the stone, leaving half the city in the open air and the rest in a system of artificial caves.

By 111 ABY, the Fyaar had explored their star system and put small space stations on both of Waldragos's moons. They had also built up an armed exploratory navy, and were investigating the feasibility of travel to neighboring star systems when the Golden Empire arrived. After the Battle of Waldragos, the system was conquered and incorporated into the Empire.

Waldragos initially languished under the Empire; the Fyaar resented anything having to do with their occupiers, and consequently refused to trade with other systems. In time, however, slowly starving themselves to death became too much for the majority of Fyaar, who began to trade native minerals and some weapons offworld, in exchange for more exotic textiles and mining equipment to expand mountain cities. Most of these digs were monitored by the Empire to ensure they were not becoming hardened redoubts for rebels.

At some point, the Virtuoso was stationed at Waldragos, which became the site of the Royal Navy's basic training. The Fyaar were divided on this development, with some praising the economic boon while others felt it was simply an excuse to have a Star Destroyer permanently stationed in orbit.