Rystan system was a star system in the Outer Rim Territories region. In addition to a star, it contained the Rystan Badlands asteroid field and the tidally locked planet Rystan. At some point no earlier than 379 BBY, the Evereni Velya Faer told the Evereni pirate leader Marda Ro about the system being a meeting spot for Evereni, which she mentioned in a message she recorded for her descendants. By 252 BBY, her great-great-grandson Marchion Ro had listened to Ro's journal, including the entry mentioning Rystan system.
In 231 BBY, Marchion Ro—having become the Eye of the Nihil by then—and the navigator Udi Dis visited Rystan to retrieve the a Force-devouring monster called the Great Leveler, a task with which Ro's cousin Kufa assisted him. Ro killed both Dis and Kufa upon securing the Leveler. Later, in 230 BBY, the Nihil pirates raised the Stormwall barrier, blocking hyperspace travel to and from an area of the galaxy in which the Rystan system was located.
Rystan system was a star system located in the grid square M-20 of the Standard Galactic Grid. The system fell into the region of the galaxy known as Outer Rim Territories. The system contained the dangerous Rystan Badlands ice asteroid field, which had many asteroids that weighed millions of tons. Rystan system also featured a weak star, which was orbited by the tidally locked wasteland planet Rystan. A comet could be found in the system.
The system became a meeting spot for members of the Evereni species by some point no earlier than 379 BBY. At that time, the Evereni Velya Faer noted this fact to Marda Ro—the Evereni founder of a group of pirates who would eventually become the Nihil—after she mentioned having been told that Evereni only meet in death by another member of the species. Ro later mentioned the system in a recording she made for her descendants. By 252 BBY, during his youth, Ro's great-great-grandson Marchion Ro had listened to her journal, including the message where the system was mentioned. Between a point no earlier than 379 BBY and 241 BBY the Great Leveler—a beast that feeds on Force-sensitives—found its way from Ro's possession to a Shrine under Rystan's Golamaran ice flats. During the Leveler's time there, faithful believers such as the Evereni Kufa made pilgrimages to the Shrine, however over time they lost faith, and stopped visiting the Shrine.
By 231 BBY, the Rystan Badlands had become littered with wrecks of cruisers that failed to pass through the asteroid field. In that year, the Force-sensitive Talortai navigator Udi Dis piloted a starship called the Squall Spider through the field, carrying the Marchion Ro—who had ascended to the rank of Eye of the Nihil by then—onboard for his mission to Rystan. During their journey, a comet plowed through the Rystan Badlands, triggering a chain reaction of collisions.
Shortly after, Ro entered the cockpit to inquire how much longer it will take to reach the end of the badlands. The Talortai said that they will reach the end in a few minutes and noted it would have been quicker to use a Path hyperlane to reach Rystan, but Ro explained that he wished to observe Dis' impressive flying skills.
After exiting the badlands, Dis brought the Spider around the system's star and entered Rystan's atmosphere. The ship landed in the planet's habitable band, where the pair met Ro's cousin Kufa. Kufa led Ro and Dis across the Golamaran ice flats and through underground tunnels into the Shrine, which . In the Shrine, Dis began to experience visions of his homeworld and his father due to the Leveler's influence on Force-sensitives. Satisfied that the legends about its power were true, Ro killed both Kufa and the Talortai, and took the Leveler with him back to the planetoid Grizal where Ro's Nihil pirates had a base. There, the Twi'lek Tempest Runner Lourna Dee asked him about his mission and Ro told her that it was successful. Soon after, the Dowutin Tempest Runner Pan Eyta told his fellow Tempest Runners about his suspicion that Ro used the Rystan system expedition to silence Dis and keep the origin of Paths a secret.
In 230 BBY, the Nihil raised the Stormwall barrier around an area on the Galactic Frontier, blocking hyperspace travel across the Stormwall. The Rystan system was a part of that region, and became one of the systems that lost contact with the rest of the galaxy. In 229 BBY, weeks later, the Vurk Jedi Master Harli Cogra included Rystan on a map of the affected area in their book Chronicles of the Jedi. By the time Cogra wrote Chronciles of the Jedi, the system was considered to be a part of the area designated as Galactic Frontier by the Galactic Republic.
Rystan system first appeared in Cavan Scott's The High Republic: The Rising Storm, a 2021 novel released as a part of Phase I of the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia project. In 2022, it received a placement on the Galactic Grid on the Star Wars Galaxy Map. The system was lated identified in the short story "A Closed Fist Has No Claws," written by Tessa Gratton and published in the 2023 young-adult anthology The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life as a part of the multimedia project.