INFO: To most inhabitants of the galaxy, members of the enigmatic Ubese species were generally known as mysterious wanderers and nomadic savages. Their xenophobic nature made them ideally suited for professions such as mercenaries or bounty hunters. Normally, they were a very aggressive people, though loyal to one another. The Ubese homeworld was little known to the rest of the galaxy, as they tended to be very secretive, associating only within their own circles.
RACE: Ubese
HEIGHT: 1.7 to 1.9 Meters Tall
SKIN: Variable, generally white
DISTINCTION: Slight build, raspy, whispering voices
LANGUAGE: Ubeninal
HOMEWORLD:Uba IV, a planet in the Mid Rim, was the home of the Ubese people following the destruction of Uba III. At the end of the first Battle of Uba IV, it was heavily poisoned and irradiated.
A millennia later, in 22 BBY, it joined the Separatists, and was was the site of a droid manufacturing plant. Clone Commander Gree faced virus-loaded Octuptarra combat tri-droid and regular tri-droids on the planet. Even after the finish of the Clone Wars, the Ubese guarded their world with both droids.
UberticaUbertica was a planet located within the Ubertica system of the Mid Rim. While habitable, it had a relatively low level of atmospheric oxygen.
Ubertica was settled by Ubese refugees after the destruction of Uba III. The Ubese who lived here were called "yrak pootczk Ubese" by their cousins in the Uba system, a phrase implying cowardice and impure parentage.
Many of Ubertica's settlements were bombarded and destroyed by the forces of the Ubese warlord Savax during the Battle of Ubertica circa 3 ABY. Only the intervention of Imperial forces stopped Savax's forces from completing the bombardment, landing on the planet to kill all the survivors, and continuing to attack other planets in the sector.
BIOLOGY AND APPEARANCE:The Ubese were slight near-Humans who appeared graceful but frail. They tended to have fair skin and dark hair, with eye colors of brilliant green or blue. They could not grow any facial hair. Their facial structure was narrow, with high cheekbones and eyes that appeared much too large for their faces when compared to baseline Humans. Males and females of the species both stood roughly by the same height – around 1.4 meters and 1.9 meters – with males being slightly heavier of build than females. Their vocal chords could not produce speech above a rasping whisper sound, so they used a highly refined form of sign language called Ubeninal when communicating with other Ubese.
After centuries of having scratched a tenuous existence breathing the parched and oxygen-poor air on their planet, the “true” Ubese from Uba IV had to use specially tuned breath masks or filters to process Type I atmospheres.
Few beings, however, knew what an Ubese looked like – they rarely, if ever, appeared to non-Ubese unless concealed by masks, battle armors, or enviromental suits. Those who have interacted face to face with an Ubese have not recognized them as such, because there are no records in any databases that describe their appearances.
CULTURE AND HISTORY:Millennia ago, the inhabitants of the Uba system – blissfully ignorant of the Old Republic – were quietly developing their own culture and technology. They led a peaceful existence, cultivating their lush homeworld and creating a highly sophisticated clan-based society. When Old Republic scouts came in contact with them, they awakened an interest in advanced technology that was soon to grow into an obsession. Before long, the Ubese began to trade anything they could get their hands on for alien technology, hoarding everything from repulsorlifts and starships to blasters and droids.
Initially, their society benefited from the technology and productivity quickly rose in all aspects of business. Health conditions improved so much that an unprecedented population boom called for the colonization of other worlds in their system. However, Ubese society eventually started to buckle in the face of such rapid technological advancements. The ability to disseminate information more rapidly broke clan boundaries and gave ambitious Ubese the tools to politically dominate regional public opinion and create nations which began to view one another with suspicion.
Within a few decades, the influx of alien technology prompted the Ubese’s interest to start creating their own. As they developed their own weapons systems, their attitudes toward neighboring star systems began to shift from friendly to aggressive. Although first-contact specialists from other species attempted to dissuade the Ubese from this course, the near-Humans grew so proud of their new inventions that they ejected the alien diplomats from their star system with warnings to the rest of the galaxy to fear the Ubese might.
Local sector authorities were both alarmed and embarrassed by these events. The Ubese were building weapons that had been banned since the formation of the Old Republic and the sector authorities were the ones who would be blamed by the Senate for letting the situation in the Uba system deteriorate as it had. Following a debate driven by fear and misinformation, the sector council decided that a preemptive strike would prove sufficient to halt the Ubese war machine and that afterwards, the people of the Uba system would once again be open to listening to the advice of the Republic diplomats.
Unfortunately, the orbital strikes against the Ubese planets triggered the species’ large-scale and highly unstable tactical defense weapons. Uba I, Uba II, and Uba V were rendered completely uninhabitable by radioactive firestorms, and Uba III, where the species had originated, was actually shattered into space debris. Only on Uba IV were there survivors – pathetic beings who would be condemned to scratch out an existence from poisoned soil and parched sea beds among scorched ruins.
Sector authorities became so fearful for their future careers that they refused to offer aid to the surviving Ubese. They then ordered all information on the civilization to be deleted from all data bases and the system removed from all star charts. The incident was so effectively hushed up that word of it never reached Coruscant.
While a few thousand survivors were relocated to a far-off system, Ubertica, by officials who felt the treatment of the Uba system was making a bad mistake worse, the majority of the survivors devolved into savage nomads. These survivors on Uba IV came to call those Ubese who had been rescued yrak pootzck, a phrase that implies a cowardly nature and “impure” parentage. In reality, the yrak pootzck attempted to retrace their system of origin within a few years of being relocated to Ubertica, but the location of the Uba system was as big of a mystery to them as it was to the rest of the galaxy.
Millennia passed, and both Ubese populations propagated on their respective worlds. Eventually, the yrak pootzck found the Uba system and shared their starfaring technology with the resentment-filled “true” Ubese. Soon, they both began to wander the stars, separately and together, united only by their hatred for and distrust of other species and cultures in the galaxy.
Little was known about Ubese culture. Away from their homeworld, wayward Ubese seemed to care little for other societies' laws, customs and mores. They were mysterious wanderers, nomadic warriors who hid their inner secrets and agendas just as they hid their faces behind helmets and breathe masks. Although most Ubese understood Basic, they rarely deigned to speak it, preferring to express themselves in their own language.
They seemed to be loyal to one another, despite nurturing a profound hatred toward most other members of the galactic community. They generally made their livings as mercenaries, bounty hunters, slavers, or assassins – professions where they got to vent their hatred without fear of retribution. The Ubese bounty hunter, Boushh, became one of the most famous Ubese in galactic history, though his posthumous fame was not won for his own deeds. Instead, it was because Leia Organa posed as Boushh to infiltrate the palace of Jabba the Hutt.
Particularly vengeful “true Ubese” were known to hunt down yrak pootzck as part of a millennia-old bloodfeud. In the years of the Galactic Empire, a true Ubese warlord, Savax, led a small fleet of capital ships to bombard Ubertica, the homeworld of the yrak pootzck. Above all else, however, Ubese were united in their hatred toward the Jedi. They blamed the “protectors of the galaxy” for what happened to their culture and world, and many Ubese could be found at the forefront of death squads during the Great Jedi Purge.
At some point prior to the end of the Galactic Civil War, some Ubese colonists fell victim to a lethal virus known as the Intestinal Revenge of Bars Barka. In his Galactic Phrase Book and Travel Guide, Ebenn Q3 Baobab tells of this illness, which caused fatal weight loss in those exposed to it. Having served as a Neimoidian doctor at one point in his career, Baobab believed that the epidemic had originated with the Neimoidian species; only speculation exists as to whether this was a deliberate, trade-related attack or an accidental outbreak.
APPEARANCES:Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Republic Commando: Hard Contact
Republic Commando: Triple Zero (Mentioned only)
Star Wars Republic: Into the Unknown
Star Wars Dark Times: Blue Harvest, Part 1 (Appears in viewscreen)
Evasive Action: Prey
Rebel Dawn
Star Wars Rebellion: My Brother, My Enemy
Star Wars Rebellion 6: The Ahakista Gambit, Part 1
Junkheap Hero (Ambiguously canonical source)
Shadows of the Empire novel (Mentioned only)
"We Are Made of Suffering" - Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook
Sacrifice (Mentioned only)
SOURCES:Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire toy line
Galaxy Guide 10: Bounty Hunters (Picture only)
Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook (First described)
Alien Encounters
The Far Orbit Project (Picture only)
Alien Anthology
Ultimate Alien Anthology
Star Wars: The Action Figure Archive
The New Essential Chronology
Galactic Phrase Book and Travel Guide
Underworld: A Galaxy of Scum and Villainy
Alien Adventures on Wizards.com (article)
Scum and Villainy
Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game – Champions of the Force (Card: Intimidating Strike) (Picture only)
Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game – Squadrons Over Corellia (Card: Ubese Gloves)
Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game – The Shadow Syndicate (Card: Shadow Sneak) (Picture only)
I would like to thank Wookieepedia for this info.
