The Nyriaanans were the bipedal sentient natives of the planet of Nyriaan, in the Expansion Region. Though biologically they were Humans, the Nyriaanans were classified as near-Humans and had some minor evolutionary adaptations that helped them to survive in the Nyriaanan environment, such as a stocky stature and eyes that could cope with the dim levels of light on Nyriaan's planetary surface. However, a variety of different body-forms could be found amongst the various different Nyriaanan clans. While most Nyriaanans had pale-colored skin, some Nyriaanans from the Malvina clan had dark skin.
The Nyriaanans were divided up into hundreds of different clans, tribes and family groups, and while some clans were nomadic, others inhabited permanent settlements that were centered around groves of Meadlin's trees, a large species of fungi that could grow up to sixty meters tall. The largest such settlement was the town Starveil, which was built on the site of the wrecked starship on which the Nyriaanan's ancestors had first arrived on the planet and was considered by the natives to be sacred. At any one time, the Nyriaan planetary authorities estimated that there were between 1,200 and 2,000 Nyriaan natives alive on the world, although in reality their true numbers were much higher. The natives spoke a colloquial dialect known as "Nyriaanan," which was a hybrid mixture of the languages Galactic Basic Standard and High Galactic. However, the language bore enough similarities to its antecessors that the Nyriaanans could easily pick up Basic quickly when exposed to it.
While they were by their nature a peaceful people, the Nyriaanans were distrustful of outsiders and viewed the various colonists and prospectors who settled on Nyriaan as competitors for the world's resources. They were easily angered by off-worlders who exploited Nyriaan for profit and they particularly despised the various mining conglomerates that established operations on Nyriaan to extract the valuable mineral madilon, because they feared that the mega-corporations would eventually destroy Nyriaan in pursuit of the ore. They disliked the environmental damage that was caused by the mining operations and had a particular hatred for the Mining Guild-run colony Tonnage, considering the settlement a blight on the landscape because of the contamination that was caused by the colony's madilon extraction efforts. On occasion, the Nyriaanans encountered the inbred descendants of the crew of the crashed Sith warship Dying Sun, who were hostile and attacked the Nyriaanans without mercy.
The Nyriaanans were not a technologically-advanced people and they used technology based upon that of the Old Republic, such as ancient blasters, which they inherited from they ancestors when they crash-landed on Nyriaan. They believed that everything had a use and that by keeping old-style technology in service and well-maintained, they honored their forebears. Nevertheless, the Nyriaanans were an adaptive race and were willing to utilize more modern forms of equipment.
In 4067 BBY, the Republic exploration vessel Starveil crashed on Nyriaan while performing a study of the Luire system. Fifty-two members of the ship's crew survived the crash, including the Starveils captain Bethanie Melan and they were forced to eke out a new life for themselves on the planet after a subsequent Republic rescue effort was unsuccessful at finding them. They became the first Nyriaanans and through their resourcefulness and their determination, they were able to survive in the alien environment. Over time, their population grew in size, both through childbirth and through additions from the survivors of other crashed starships, and the Nyriaanans remained in isolation for thousands of years.
After the discovery of deposits of madilon—a naturally-occuring alloy that was used in the construction of starship hyperdrives—on Nyriaan in 85 BBY, the world was colonized by off-worlders and numerous madilon extraction operations were established by big mining corporations, including the Corporate Sector Authority and the Mining Guild. The corporations had scant regard for the well-being of the Nyriaanans, building on their land and using the natives as pawns in their plots to undermine their corporate competitors. The town Temperance was constructed just outside the native settlement Starveil to allow off-world merchants to sell their wares to the native market, and it became popular among the natives as a place to purchase modern weapons and spare parts. At some point anthropologists from the Galactic Republic ventured to Nyriaan to study the natives.
Tensions between the natives and the off-worlders erupted in 47 BBY and following the liquidation of a native settlement by the Corporate Sector Authority, the Nyriaanan clans staged a coordinated uprising and destroyed several frontier towns. The Jedi Knight Amar Cros was dispatched to Nyriaan to resolve the conflict, and in 43 BBY a non-aggression pact between the Nyriaanans, the Republic and the mining corporations was signed, restoring Nyriaan to a state of uneasy peace. Cros was fascinated by the natives and he chose to remain on Nyriaan with them. In 36 BBY, CSA breached the peace agreement by prospecting on native land, causing hostilities to erupt between the Nyriaanans and the off-world colonists once more, but this time directed solely at the CSA. Amar Cros was at the forefront of the conflict, playing a pivotal role in the native insurgency, while rivals of the CSA, the Mining Guild and the Trade Federation quietly provided support to the Nyriaanans.
In 30 BBY, the Galactic Senate, the governing body of the Republic, passed a decree known as the "Luire Accord" in an attempt to defuse the tensions between the natives and the mining corporations. Under the terms of the agreement several environmental reservations in the unexplored regions of Nyriaan were set aside, in part to appease the natives, while a new planetary government, the Nyriaan Concord was installed in Locus, the planet's capital. The Concord included a separate body called the , which was made up entirely of native Nyriaanans, and Amar Cros served as the leader of the first group of natives to sit in the government. However, the views of the Native Delegation were largely ignored by the Concord, which was dominated by the off-world corporations. Cros soon left in disgust and, accompanied by a large group of Nyriaanans, withdrew to the planet's unexplored regions.
During the Clone Wars, Nyriaan fell into the hands of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Without the restrictions that had been placed on them by the Republic, the CSA and the Mining Guild both expanded their operations and began exploiting land owned by the Nyriaanans The natives resisted violently, and were assisted by the remnants of the Republic forces.
Nyriaans captured by the Yuuzhan Vong in 26 ABY. The Yuuzhan Vong originally ignored the native clans, but when they began using captured natives for experiments, the natives initiated a guerrilla war, to try and drive the invaders out. Following the defeat of the Vong in 29 BBY, a number of Yuuzhan Vong refugees settled on Nyriaan and were eventually accepted as equals by the native clans.
Following the formation of Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire in 130 ABY, several Jedi took refuge on Nyriaan and lived among the Nyriaanan clans.
- Galaxy of Intrigue