Dubravans were a species of green-skinned humanoids native to the world of Dubrava. They possessed yellow blood, black eyes, and webbed hands and feet with four digits apiece. Anatomically, females of the species were distinguished by their breasts; however, cultural signifiers of gender included clothing and hair styles. The swamps of the species' homeworld supported a simple civilization based upon wood construction and water-based transportation.
During the Galactic Civil War, Dubrava became a site of conflict between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic. By 0 ABY, the Empire had dispatched stormtroopers to the world, while the Rebellion sent the Human pilot Jal Te Gniev there as a recruiter. The Rebel resented the assignment and rebuffed a young Dubravan named Bobek who wished to join the movement. However, when the Human revealed to a Dubravan female named Nevana that Rebel pilot Luke Skywalker had destroyed the Empire's Death Star battlestation, she sold the information to a Dubravan bounty hunter named Sarma, who in turn informed the Empire. Nevana accidentally led a group of stormtroopers to the bar from which Gniev operated, and in the ensuing events, Nevana and Bobek both died, and Gniev fled the world to warn Skywalker that the Empire was pursuing him.
Dubravans were sentient humanoids characterized by their bright-green skin and smooth-featured faces. The visage of a representative of the species exhibited Human-like lips and a mouthful of white teeth, and a pair of black, bulging eyes shaped like oblong ovals. However, despite that simplicity, the beings were capable of expressing emotions with their features, such as smiles and frowns, and the eyes were capable of producing tears. Behind the jaw at the sides of the head lay long, fleshy flaps distinguished by their deep wrinkles and squared-off shape. The smooth skin tended to wrinkle as an individual aged. A full head of hair topped the pate of most members of the species, although baldness advanced in some more aged specimens. Hair colors varied widely; blond, red, brown, green, gray, and white each manifested in various individuals. On each limb, a typical Dubravan sported four webbed digits with nails. The species was divided into both males and females. Characteristics that distinguished the sexes included facial hair on some males and prominent breasts on the females. Dubravans had yellow blood.
Dubravan technology included flat-bottom boats and simple buildings made of wood.
Dubrava, homeworld of the Dubravans, was a swamp planet that was sometimes referred to derisively as the "armpit of the universe." The world's technology was a hodgepodge of the simple and the advanced: on the one hand, individuals used such items as simple woven baskets, leather satchels, pipes with globular bowls, and metal mugs and eating utensils. On the other, satellite dishes adorned most Dubravan buildings, individuals used advanced weaponry such as blaster pistols, and some Dubravans worked at least part-time as starship dealers or bounty hunters. In the planet's Canal District, docks and piers connected the small islands that dotted the marshland region. Flat-bottom boats and hovercraft moved sentient beings and goods across the waters from point to point, some such craft powered by motors but others punted with poles. The islands supported Dubravan buildings, more of which were found within the confines of towns. The species' architecture was characterized by wood-plank construction anchored by full logs at the corners and between stories. A short flight of stairs led to the front door of a typical dwelling, and shuttered windows offered another means of egress. Such buildings were relatively spartan, their coloration coming from the natural colors of the woods used to construct them. Furnishings, too, were simple, wooden affairs. Plain, dirt roads serviced traffic through the settlements.
Dubravans wore gender-specific clothing akin to that prevalent among other species in the galaxy. Men preferred tunics and breeches, often with a belt and boots, while women took instead to simple shifts and sleek gowns with high-heeled shoes. Although males were known to wear piercings in the fleshy growths at the sides of the head, females showed more interest in adornments such as metal bracelets and bangles. Hairstyle was another marker of identity. Some men wore their hair shoulder-length, while others shaved all but a shock of hair near the forehead or pulled long hair back into a ponytail. Meanwhile, women tended to keep their hair longer.
Their diet included a red fruit. Some Dubravans enjoyed drinking frothy beverages in bars. Another tavern pastime was card games. At least some Dubravans could speak and understand Basic.
The Rebel Alliance sent Jal Te Gniev to recruit on the planet Dubrava.
The Dubravans' home system received its first visitors from another world at some point between 1000 and 25 BBY. The planet became incorporated into the greater galaxy as part of the Triellus Trade Route and as part of Albanin sector, located in a larger region known as the Slice. By 20 BBY, during the Clone Wars, the Dubravan home system had fallen under the influence of the Hutts, a species whose domain, known as Hutt Space, came to encompass the area. Nevertheless, by 14 BBY, the influence had retreated. At least a few non-Dubravans traveled to the world, including a Snivvian bartender.
At some point before 0 ABY, the Galactic Empire established a presence on Dubrava by stationing stormtroopers there. Shorty after the Battle of Yavin, the Alliance to Restore the Republic followed suit and dispatched the Human X-wing pilot Jal Te Gniev to Dubrava to recruit for the organization on the planet. When a young Dubravan male named Bobek sought out Gniev in a Canal District bar, the Human, disillusioned with his relatively backwater assignment, humiliated the boy by blindfolding him and directing him into a trap door under the ruse of running a confidence test. Gniev sent Bobek away with the aspersion that trust in the Rebellion was foolish. Incensed, Bobek left the scene, found a blaster, and made his way back to the bar to kill the Human pilot—as a service to the Rebellion that the young boy thought the man only nominally represented.
Bobek's death prompted Jal Te Gniev to warn Luke Skywalker that the Empire knew his name.
Meanwhile, a Dubravan woman named Nevana found the inebriated Gniev at the same bar. She prodded him for information about the Rebellion and eventually coaxed the name "Skywalker" from him as the identification of the pilot who had destroyed the Empire's Death Star battlestation. However, when Nevana sold the information to a Dubravan bounty hunter named Sarma in a nearby town as a way to pay off her father's debt to him, Sarma merely turned her in to the Empire, although they shot him as soon as he pointed Nevana out to them. Stormtroopers ambushed the woman in the street, and she fled into the swamps. She returned to Gniev's bar and inadvertently led the stormtroopers to the Rebel recruiter's location. The Imperial troops then burned the establishment down with flamethrowers; Nevana died in the massacre, but Gniev escaped. Nevertheless, he found himself unarmed and facing two more stormtroopers. At that moment, Bobek, the boy whom Gniev had humiliated, appeared and shot the stormtroopers with the blaster he had intended to use to kill Gniev—although not before the Imperial soldiers fatally wounded the young Dubravan. Bobek's actions inspired Gniev to rethink his role in the Rebellion and abandon his acerbic attitude. He bought a starfighter from a Dubravan salesman and fled the swamp planet to warn Luke Skywalker that the Empire was on his trail.
Circa 25 ABY, Dubrava's sentient population was between ten and one hundred million. By 137 ABY, Dubrava was within the territory of the Hutt dependencies.
The second issue of Vader's Quest, a comic book published in 1999 by Dark Horse Comics, marked the first appearance of the Dubravans in Star Wars continuity. The green-skinned species plays a prominent role in the issue, which was written by Darko Macan and penciled by Dave Gibbons. A mistake in one frame shows the Dubravan Bobek with five fingers per hand, whereas the remainder of the comic depicts the Rebel sympathizer—along with the other members of his species—with only four digits per hand. Because the back cover of each issue of the four-part miniseries includes an illustration of how the four covers fit together to form a single image, the Dubravans Bobek and Nevana technically appear in each issue due to their prominent place on the cover of the second installment. The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, a three-volume set published by Del Rey in 2008, includes entries for the planet Dubrava and the characters Bobek and Nevana.
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. I; II