Living all the way up there... I don't think they get enough oxygen for their brains to function properly, and that's why they always come up with such impractical ideas.
—Elten Shaud, on the upper classes of Rapyuta
Rapyuta was a factory world located on the edge of the Inner Rim. It was notable for its heavily stratified society, wherein the upper classes, made up mostly of intellectuals and philsophers, lived in floating cities, like the planet's capital, Tenkushiro, while the lower classes, consisting of the planet's entire labor force, lived in clustered towns on the planet's surface. Though the upper classes were very bright and knowledgeable about science and mathematics, they were notoriously irrational, and were heavily reliant upon the lower classes to provide supplies and labor for them. They kept control over the laborers by moving their floating cities over any towns where the citizenry misbehaved, thus preventing those towns from receiving sunlight and rain.
During the Imperial Era, Rapyuta became flooded with Baquin migrants, leading to the displacement of the humans living there, and the eventual establishment of Rapyuta as the new Baquin capital.
History[]
Early Years[]
Colonized in about 24,978 BBY, Rapyuta's wind-swept hills and deep mines made it a valuable acquisition, and the planet was soon dotted with bustling mining towns and camps.
Imperial Era[]
During the rise of the Galactic Empire, Rapyuta experienced great social upheaval, as industrialization of the surface cities had enabled those cities to start trading on an interplanetary scale, which reduced their dependence upon the upper classes. The laborers eventually ceased to deliver supplies to the cities, creating a sudden economic crisis that threatened the upper class. The upper classes thus turned to the Empire in a desperate plea for aid, to which the Empire responded by approving the migration of thousands of Baquin laborers.
The Baquin soon entered the mining industry, as their unique sensitivity to metals and strong respiratory systems allowed them to go into areas of the mines where the humans could not and thus produce more metal. Within a few years, the mining industry was completely controlled by the Baquin, who used their newfound wealth to start buying their way into the other industries, and who resumed trade between the surface and the floating cities. The economy of the surface people collapsed and the floating cities grew richer. Eventually, the humans on the surface left the planet in large numbers, and the Baquin negotiated for a coalition wherein they and the people of the air shared the planet's resources.
Behind the scenes[]
Rapyuta is a thinly-veiled tribute to Laputa, the imaginary floating city in Jonathan Swift's satire Gulliver's Travels. The name Rapyuta (and the city of Tenkushiro) come from Tenku no Shiro no Rapyuta, Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 film, which was based in part upon Swift's novel (similarly, the two moons, Pazo and Sheeda, are named for Pazu and Sheeta, the hero and heroine from that film.)