“It is a world that made me what I am – You would not survive.”
-Koort Ter'Chon

In an attempt to give their planet the level of military upper hand they felt they needed, the Ubese began to develop weapons that had long been prohibited by Galactic law. On over-reactive reflex, the sector government ordered full-scale bombardment of the plants which manufactured these weapons without taking time to study the effects it would have on the system. The effects were disastrous.

The simultaneous detonation of so many weapons of mass-destruction set off a chain reaction which virtually destroyed all but one of the planets in the system, and left that one all but un inhabitable. Ashamed and taken aback by the tragedy, and fearing the ramifications of their actions, the sector leadership destroyed all evidence of the catastrophe, and all but wiped every reference to the Uba system from star charts.

It would not be for centuries that travelers from other worlds would once again stumble across the blasted landscape of Uba IV, and when they did, they found a changed people. Wandering the wastes in nomadic bands, struggling to survive, the Ubese seemed on the brink of extinction. Many of their people were rescued and relocated to a more habitable world, but many refused to go. They saw the outlanders as the cause of their suffering, and preferred to fight for their own survival, rather than rely on another race. The explorers who transported many Ubese away were let to go in peace. Later ships would face a different story.

Not many other ships brave the world now. Stories and rumors abound of the predatory Raiders roaming the Wastes, attacking any who dared set down, stripping them of whatever technology could be taken and used. Given that such stories, coupled with the occasional sighting of an Ubese bounty hunter or a science-hungry Ubese tech, shed a dark light indeed upon this people, when any light is shed at all. It is often said that only the Ubese understand the Ubese. Some wonder if even that much is true.

Ubese Society

The infamous Ubese Raiders are but one segment of the population of this world. Also, there stand the city-states of the Settlers, who seek to re-establish some semblance of orderly life and restart trade with the outside world. Their efforts are made possible by the Conservators, an elite group within the race who devote their lives to reclaiming the Wastes, and making them stable enough to support life. Each of these groups has a special place in Ubese society, and its own unique way of life.

*The Raiders

For much of Ubese society, the grand dream is to live in one of the larger Settlements, such as Crucible. Even the smaller settlements are viewed as places of hope, where one might have a future beyond the deadly wastes. Sadly, most Ubese never have the chance to live such a life. The Settlements are too few and far between, and many – including outlaws and rejects – are forced to live out their existences in the Wastes.

For these people, life is harsh, violent, and short. Creatures roam the Wastes that could eat anything smaller than a Wookiee or Gammorean in two bites. Harsh winds and solar radiation, combined with chemicals that ooze up from the blasted landscape, corrode anything left exposed. Constantly on the move, the Raiders live in nomadic clans, always trying to outdo each other with only these thoughts in mind: Survive. Acquire. Conquer. Survive. For most Raider camps, the ultimate dream is to become powerful enough to take over a Settlement. Anyone and anything between them and that goal is seen in one of two lights: an obstacle to be destroyed, or a source for the technology that makes life in the Wastes – such as it is – possible.

Raiders are aggressive, violent, and deadly. They forge their armor from the monsters that hunger for their flesh, and take weapons from the still-warm hands of their enemies. The Ubese Raiders do not believe in revenge. They believe a potential enemy should be destroyed before they have the chance to strike. As a result, a Raider clan is in a constant state of war. The death of the enemy is the life of the clan. The life of the clan is the life of the Raider.

*The Settlers

Ubese Settlers are the privileged among the Ubese. Living sealed within their walled cities, some of them are able to build a life that is at least a shadow of civilization (by Galactic standards). There are trades and craftsmen, schools and educators, families and occasional recreation, law and order. Scientists and technicians in these cities study and develop new devices and techniques, especially where a larger Settlement has managed to build an internal starport to support the few traders who will venture to the world. Remembering the past, they are careful to not build weapons that will threaten their homes once more, but neither are they lax in planetary security. They know well that there are worse things to face than the Raiders, and most of them wear smiles.

Life in an Ubese settlement is much like that of a civilization that is just expanding into the last frontiers of its world. They try to live their lives constructively, but the constant danger of attack, the constant fear of death keeps most of the citizenry on their toes. Approximately one in three Settlers owns some sort of heavy personal firearm, including the women and children above nine standard years of age.

They hold up the pretense of normal life while remaining on near-constant military alert. Even the most docile citizen in a Settlement would make the warrior castes of most other cultures blanch at their willingness to go to battle. When Raiders or the rare Outlander group attacks a Settlement, every armed Ubese will find a place in the fray to fight for their lives, their families and their way of life. Some cynics would say that the only difference between the Raiders and the Settlers is what side of the wall they live on. That is, they would say it from a safe, preferably interstellar, distance.

*The Conservationists

When it comes to mastery of the sciences, the arts of combat, and cold, detached ruthlessness, none among the other two groups can hold a candle to the Conservationists. Conservationists are selected very early from their peers – often at no more than two months’ age – for their superior traits. They are raised and trained – and some would venture to say bred – to give up any thoughts of their own lives for the one singular purpose of Conservation: Reclaim the Planet.

To this end, a group of Conservationists will roam the wastes for the rest of their natural lives, seeking out places that are near to suitability for Settlement. With advanced technologies kept secret from even all but the most elite Settler scientists, the Conservationists set out to stabilize the area, and build up the needed resources to make it suitable to be inhabited. In doing so, they sacrifice their present for the Ubese future. Their selfless dedication to the cause, along with their complete disregard for personal needs beyond what is require to continue living and Reclaiming, makes the Conservationists the toughest form of life on the planet.

The Conservationists are also, despite their harried appearance, the most technologically advanced group of Ubese. In their knowledge lies even the secrets of those banned weapons that wrecked the worlds, so they might undo that damage. That, along will all but the most visual of their knowledge, is kept in a purely oral tradition so that none but a Conservator might learn it.

So prized is their level of technical development that one might wonder how such small groups of them manage to survive in the Wastes, home of the ever-present Raiders… until one met with a Conservationist face to face. Then it would become clear why only the most desperate or foolhardy of Raider clans would ever attack them. It is told that those few who do can count no survivors of the attempt.

The Geography and Biology of Uba IV

It is a land blasted away centuries ago, only now beginning to heal. Wherever life arises, already predators await to snatch greedily at whatever they can. The entire world seems to have been overtaken by purely predatory species, each just waiting for the other to look away long enough…

The atmosphere is thin, parched, and toxic to most humanoid life. It cannot be said for certain what the planet’s original atmospheric composition was, save that it was something else. Even for the Ubese themselves, who have adapted to survive here, the air takes its toll. One needs only listen to their tortured, rasping voices amplified through their breath masks to know that.

In the Wastes is embodied most outlanders’ view of Uba IV. Plant life is few and far between, and where it is found, the local flora gives the impression, via its many jutting spines and sharp angles, that it is as likely to eat as be eaten. The fauna, such as it is, is little better, seemingly composed entirely of sharp claws, ferocious teeth, and quick legs. Creatures known to outlanders as Dune Crabs scuttle through the red, grainy sands, seeking to part some unwitting creature from a spare leg or two.

Image by Tracy Hart & LOWBALL

Creatures like monstrous insects or centipedes roam the sands and craggy outbreaks of rock. They are easily large enough to be riding mounts, could one find a seat of the range of gargantuan mandible. Even the smaller things there are deadly – there is a reason Raiders sleep in their armor.

Water is scarce and always sulphurous, even when it falls from the sky. The Ubese have long since adjusted to this, and complain of the hollow taste of any pure water. Other water sources are mostly found in the massive outcroppings of rock, where distended sections of the planet’s crust have shoved their way into view. The waters here bubble as much from gaseous content as from heat. Any human strong or foolish enough to be struggling through breathing the Ubese atmosphere would surely find his end in the vapors from those springs.

Massive mineral deposits near those springs, as well as occasional veins of a spice variant, sometimes cause smugglers and prospectors to seek these areas out. Their greed or adventurousness is often their undoing, however, as such places are often the favored hiding places of Raider bands, as much for the technology a landed ship hands them as for the minerals and precious water. These sites are often littered with the bones of Outlanders, until the burning winds and acid rains turn them to dust.

In the Settlements, there is a slightly better world. The Conservators take their job seriously and do it well, setting up filtration systems to remove the more hazardous contents of the water, reverse greenhouses designed to keep enough solar radiation out to allow the growth of plants, and miniature refineries to process the readily available minerals and ores. One of the greatest advantages of a Settlement, though, is the wall.

The wall around a Settlement is a military compound in and of itself. The outer surface is a mass of weapons and deterrents, and they are designed to keep anyone or anything from gaining unauthorized entry. Razor-sharp downward facing spikes are among the more subtle reminders that The Line Is Drawn Here. The outer wall of a Settlement can seem more foreboding than even the Wastes. The inner wall is the housing place for the Settlement’s defense force, an elite group of Ubese warriors who protect the city both within and without. They are both police and militia, and they take both jobs very seriously.

The largest and most familiar Settlement is one known to the Ubese as Key’ucha Yo’toh, translated by offworlders as Crucible. The chief authority of the Settlers rests here, as does the hallowed training ground for the Conservators. In Crucible stands the largest secure starport on the world, and only here can outlanders walk with any illusion of security. Still, even in Crucible, one should be wary of what is said and done, lest the traveler be lost to statistic, and their possessions “granted” to the technical division for dispersement.

When a traveler visits Uba, the stay is either extraordinarily brief, or it is forever. Either way, few non-Ubese ever leave the world with a working understanding of their culture. Some say that the greatest secret of Ubese culture is that there is no Ubese culture, rather only those who have and those who seek to take. Only the Ubese know for sure, and they aren’t talking.