A gushaz was a structure that was used by the Aaris—the native sentient species of the planet Aaris III—as a place of reverence. One gushaz was located in the City of Kastays several thousand years before the Galactic Civil War, and was briefly the home of the Plaque of Victory. The Plaque—a sentient, inanimate lifeform that manipulated other beings into turning on one another by heightening their paranoia and violent tendencies—was the cause of the civil war that led to the downfall of the Aaris civilization. In an effort to defeat the Plaque's influence, it was removed from the gushaz by one of the factions involved in the fighting and taken to a tower above the city, in the hope that its influence would not affect the population from a great height, although the plan ultimately failed.
The Plaque of Victory
A gushaz was a place of reverence used by the Aaris, a sentient reptilian species that lived on the planet Aaris III in the Kathol sector of the Outer Rim Territories. One gushaz was located in the City of Kastays. Thousands of years before the Galactic Civil War, the Aaris discovered the Plaque of Victory on their world and placed it in the city's gushaz. However, the Plaque was a sentient, inanimate lifeform bound inside a metal ingot. It sought to destroy those individuals around it by manipulating their personalities, making them more violent and paranoid. Eventually, the Plaque's influence came to affect the entire city, and violence erupted among the population. The Plaque was removed from the gushaz by one of the factions fighting in the city and taken to the tower of a local scholar, Kastays, in the hope that the Plaque's influence would be negated high above the city. The plan failed, and the planet descended into a civil war, which led to the downfall of the Aaris civilization.
In 8 ABY, an Imperial archaeological expedition to Aaris III uncovered Kastays' tower and the Plaque of Victory. Grigor Tansad, a scientist on the team, translated several pictographs on the chamber's walls left by Kastays describing the events surrounding the Plaque of Victory's arrival in the city. Tansad found reference to the gushaz, but the translation of the term was unclear to him. He knew it was a place of reverence but was unsure if the gushaz was a temple or a palace.
The gushaz was first mentioned in the roleplaying game adventure Artifact of Aaris, published in The DarkStryder Campaign by West End Games in 1995.