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The Senex-Juvex was a region on the edge of the Mid Rim that comprised the Senex sector and the Juvex sector. Though the region was nominally split into the two sectors, in practice the Senex-Juvex formed a single cultural region, ruled by wealthy Human noble houses that rejected centralized government and supported themselves through an active slave trade. Formed by a group of Core Worlds nobles led by Thull Vandron around 1000 BBY, the Senex-Juvex fiercely guarded its independence and only joined the Galactic Republic shortly before the Clone Wars.
Description[]
The Senex-Juvex was a dense cluster of star systems distributed around the nebula Thull's Shroud. Formed as a rejection of centralized power, there was no government in the region beyond that of the noble houses, which controlled their own planetary fiefdoms. Of the seventeen families that originally set out from the Core, nine settled the systems in the eastern reaches of Thull's Shroud, forming the Senex, while eight families settled the western systems, forming the Juvex.[1]
The Senex-Juvex became a region of vast agricultural worlds ruled by aristocrats, pleasure planets, and wilderness worlds reserved for nobles' safaris. The region's native species were almost totally enslaved to the Human aristocrats. On the rare occasions when a region-wide policy was required, the noble houses would meet for councils or synods on the pleasure planet Nantama.[1]
Neelanon and Juvex were the nominal capitals of the respective sectors, though within the Senex-Juvex this meant little. More important in the Senex were Karfeddion, the homeworld of House Vandron and a major agriworld; Atron, a major urban, industrial and commercial center controlled by House Garonnin; Doreen, a waterworld controlled by House Petro and the source of Doreenian ambergris, a traditional perfume ingredient; and Suliana, a cotton-producing tradeworld controlled by House Hax that served the Tangles. In the Juvex sector, Kassido was an urban world that controlled Coreward trade, making it one of the most-populated and wealthiest planets in the region; Deminol was a bustling port world known for its universities; Resti Kel was an industrial world controlled by House Kellermin, known for its athletic competitions; and Loovria was a world infamous for its gladiatorial fights.[1]
Under the Galactic Empire, the Senex-Juvex bordered the Ninth Quadrant, the Agarix sector, the D'Aelgoth sector, and the Hadar sector. The Senex Trace stretched east to connect Karfeddion with the Rimma Trade Route near Sullust. Other routes in and out of the region were the Veron Route, the Anturi Reach, the Velga Route, the Agarix Trade Route, and the D'Aelgoth Trade Route. The main route within the Senex-Juvex was the Senex-Juvex Loop.[1]
History[]
Formation[]
Following the defeat of the Brotherhood of Darkness during the New Sith Wars, the war hero and hyperspace explorer Thull Vandron was elected to the Galactic Senate. A great opponent of centralized government power, Vandron helped craft the Ruusan Reformations that decentralized the Galactic Republic. Vandron felt that the reforms ultimately did not go far enough, however, and he gathered a group of like-minded, wealthy Core World families and headed into the outer reaches of the galaxy. Following secret hyperspace routes that Vandron had discovered, they settled the systems around a nebula on the edge of the Mid Rim that was later named Thull's Shroud in Vandron's honor.[1]
Vandron and his followers rejected any government beyond that of their own noble houses, which numbered seventeen. Nine houses—Vandron, Garonnin, Elegin, Anturi, Taneel, Petro, Araba, Hax and Viholn—settled the eastern reaches of Thull's Shroud, forming the Senex. The western systems became the Juvex, divided among Houses Sreethyn, Carbinol, Halliikeenovich, Sisemon, Kassido, Kellermin Pilor and Mekuun. The settlers' technology was far ahead of the region's native species. Conquering world after world, the seventeen houses took control of all of the habitable planets they could reach and by 900 BBY had consigned virtually all the region's species to slavery and were the unquestioned masters of the region.[1]
Early in its history, the Senex and the Juvex were divided into four quadrants each.[1]
Conflict with the Republic[]
For nearly two centuries, the Senex and Juvex Lords were secure on their plantation worlds, doing little more than conducting aristocratic, dynastic plots against each other. Republic scouts soon began penetrating the Mid and Outer Rims, however, and the Senex-Juvex faced a powerful new rival in Eriadu, dominating the crossroads of the Hydian Way and Rimma Trade Route in the southern Outer Rim. In 700 BBY, the Houses annexed a a swath of adjacent systems as a buffer zone against Eriadu, establishing the Ninth Quadrant.[1]
The Senex-Juvex and the Galactic Republic coexisted uneasily. The Houses rejected the Republic's entreaties, sometimes going so far as to mine the hyperspace routes into the region. The Senex-Juvex's isolationism and aristocratic rule made it the subject of many wild spacer tales, many of which were on the whole true. In the Republic's last centuries, traders and merchants forged new routes into the Senex-Juvex and the Houses realized that they had fallen behind the wider galaxy technologically.[1]
The Crimson Days[]
The Senex-Juvex's backwardness was brought home to the Houses in 553 BBY, when the warlord Osted Picutorion married Farasa Anturi, the mad princess of House Anturi, the weakest of the Senex houses. Picutorion then began a war known as the Crimson Days, defeating the combined forces of Houses Vandron and Petro, freeing the Hutlarians from slavery, and occupying Karfeddion.[1]
The Crimson Days ended with the Third Nantama Synod, which accepted the independence of Hutlar and the marriage of Picutorion and Anturi. Within a century, House Anturi had become House Picutorion, and the rebellious Juxex House Mekuun had dissolved its holdings and sought recognition as a Republic sector. Meanwhile, the Republic forcibly annexed the Ninth Quadrant as part of the Bozhnee sector.[1]
The Rise of the Empire[]
At the Fourth Nantama Synod, the Houses of the Senex-Juvex accepted political realities and agreed to seek peace with the Republic. The Republic split the region into the Senex sector and the Juvex sector, though the Houses generally did not recognize the division. They did, however, return two Senators to Coruscant and began negotiations with various megacorporations to open up the Senex-Juvex's commerce. The Senex-Juvex's active slave trade ran afoul of the Rights of Sentience clause of the Galactic Constitution, however, and the Houses' refusal to abandon something they considered an integral part of their culture meant that the Galactic Senate imposed serious restrictions on trade with the region. The Houses were forced to do business through front companies and criminal groups.[1]
Around 33 BBY, the terrorist group known as the Nebula Front operated out of the Asmeru system in the Senex-Juvex.[2] The Houses' assistance in suppressing the Nebula Front meant that the Republic relaxed trade restrictions somewhat.[1]
After the Declaration of a New Order in 19 BBY, the Senex-Juvex Lords benefited from the Galactic Empire's abolition of the Rights of Sentience clause and Emperor Palpatine's legalization of slavery as a punishment for "crimes against the civil order." This allowed the Houses to continue their slave trade on the basis that their rule constituted the civil order in the Senex-Juvex.[1]
Later history[]
The Senex-Juvex Lords were able to continue their activities undisturbed in the chaos that followed the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY. Neither Grand Admiral Thrawn nor the New Republic made significant inroads there during the Galactic Civil War. In 12 ABY the former Emperor's Hand Roganda Ismaren approached the Senex-Juvex Houses for financial support for her scheme to proclaim her son Irek a new Emperor. New Republic agents disrupted the meeting of nobles on nearby Belsavis, however, forcing Roganda Ismaren into hiding.[3]
The Senex-Juvex accepted refugees during the early Yuuzhan Vong War, though many saw this as a cynical attempt to gain a new influx of slaves.[1] Droma intended to take the Ryn to the region in 26 ABY.[4]
Appearances[]
- Cloak of Deception
- "Below the Belt: Philanthropy" – Living Force campaign (Mentioned only)
- Children of the Jedi
- The New Jedi Order: Balance Point (Mentioned only)
Sources[]
- Planets of the Galaxy, Volume One
- The Truce at Bakura Sourcebook
- The Essential Chronology
Galaxy map poster — Star Wars Adventures Magazine 12- "The Hunt Within: Valance's Tale: Conclusion" (original article link) on Wizards.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
- The New Essential Chronology
- The Essential Atlas
- Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook
- Star Wars: Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook
