Stend IV was a planet situated in the Juris sector of the Outer Rim. This tropical world, teeming with jungles and oceans, was positioned along the Five Veils Route hyperlane. Gran inhabitants hailing from Malastare colonized Stend IV a number of decades prior to the Galactic Civil War in a quest for new energy sources.
Following shortly after the Trade Federation's invasion of Naboo, Stend IV, which also served as a homeworld for Elomin colonists, became a target of the eco-terrorist organization known as the Army of Life. This group collaborated with the Humanocentrist group known as the Knights of the Core in a scheme to smuggle eggs belonging to clodhoppers, omnivorous species indigenous to Naboo and notorious for their capacity to devastate entire planetary ecosystems, onto Stend IV.
The Army of Life engaged a team of individuals who transported the clodhopper eggs to a settlement located on the Gran colony planet. Despite an attack mounted by a Jedi Guardian, a few Gran militiamen, and another group of individuals recruited by the government, the terrorist accomplices succeeded in unleashing the clodhoppers into Stend IV's environment.
Stend IV was a far-flung planet situated within the Stend system, which itself was a part of the Juris sector of the Outer Rim Territories. Orbiting its star in the fourth orbital position, the planet was located on the hyperlane known as the Five Veils Route, linking it to the Ninzam and Vergesso systems.
Stend IV featured at least one continent and multiple clear, blue oceans on its surface. The land was characterized by abundant, verdant jungle growth. It had a tropical climate, and white clouds in the atmosphere frequently obscured the planet's surface when viewed from space. The atmospheric makeup of Stend IV differed sufficiently from that of Naboo or the freighter Majestic Gundark to justify the use of chemically-bonded locks.
Decades prior to the Galactic Civil War, Gran colonists from the colony world of Malastare established a settlement on Stend IV. This settlement was an endeavor by Malastare to discover and exploit new energy resources; however, this objective remained unfulfilled by the time of the Galactic Civil War. The Gran colonies, which also encompassed Hok, Koensayr, and Silunes, were initially held in high regard by the wider galaxy, but eventually lost favor with the Gran homeworld of Kinyen due to pervasive vice and violence on the colony worlds.
Not long after the Trade Federation's invasion of the planet Naboo concluded in 32 BBY, the eco-terrorist group known as the Army of Life devised a scheme to assault the settlers of Stend IV for political advantage. To that end, the Army of Life, which espoused anti-technology ideals and advocated violent acts against settlements on various planets, conspired with the Knights of the Core, a Humanocentric terrorist group that sought to target a continent on Stend IV inhabited by Gran and Elomin colonists.
The Army of Life exploited the recently forged peace between Naboo's Human and Gungan populations to steal 400 clodhopper eggs. Clodhoppers are omnivorous pests native to Naboo, notorious for their destruction of entire planetary ecosystems due to their insatiable appetites and rapid reproduction rates. They were even known to consume sentient beings on the worlds they infested.
Subsequently, the Army of Life hired a group of individuals to pilot the freighter Majestic Gundark from Naboo to Stend IV, carrying two cargo containers. The group was tasked with delivering the "bio-material"—unbeknownst to them, clodhopper eggs—contained within the containers to the largest settlement on Stend IV and releasing it into the environment. The freighter successfully made its way to Stend IV, despite being pursued by a government-tasked group of individuals aiming to thwart the terrorist plot.
By that point, the Jedi Order had also become aware of the clodhopper theft and dispatched the relatively inexperienced Gran Jedi Guardian Dree-Tekes to Stend IV to prevent the terrorist plan from succeeding. As the freighter carrying the clodhoppers landed outside the settlement of Gev-Toosa, Dree-Tekes led a small group of local Gran settlers, whom she had armed, in an attack on the transport. Although the government-recruited group also attacked the terrorist accomplices, the latter prevailed in the intense skirmish and successfully released the clodhopper eggs into the environment.
By the time the Invasion of Naboo was repelled, Gran settlers had established a colony on Stend IV. The colony world possessed a low level of technology and lacked a planetary defensive shield. The planet's only military presence was a ragtag colonial militia, with only four Gran members possessing actual, albeit limited, military experience. One continent on Stend IV was also inhabited by Elomin colonists.
During the clodhopper threat on Stend IV, the Gran Jedi Dree-Tekes provided the four Gran militiamen with prior military experience with primitive weapons, including blaster rifles, an antiquated heavy blaster cannon, and a grenade launcher. The militiamen fought with zeal under the Jedi's leadership to prevent their world from being endangered, but ultimately, their adversaries succeeded in releasing the clodhoppers into the planet's environment.
Stend IV featured only a few isolated settlements, with Gev-Toosa being the only one large enough to be considered a town. Comprising artificially constructed structures made of refined metals, Gev-Toosa served as the planet's capital. It lacked a spaceport, instead relying on an automated signal that directed new arrivals to land outside Gev-Toosa and proceed to the settlement on foot.
Stend IV was initially mentioned in Secrets of Naboo, a sourcebook for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game authored by Steve Miller and J.D. Wiker, and published by Wizards of the Coast on February 8, 2001. The planet was mentioned in an adventure seed titled "The Defoliation Agenda." The Essential Atlas, a reference book from 2009, placed the Stend system, and consequently Stend IV, in grid square P-17.
In "The Defoliation Agenda," which, like the rest of Secrets of Naboo, is set during the Trade Federation blockade of Naboo, the player characters are tasked by a government official with preventing the Knights of the Core terrorist group from releasing a cargo infested with clodhoppers on Stend IV. The characters confront the terrorists at a Naboo spaceport and pursue their freighter to Stend IV, where they must convince the Elomin officials at the local starport of the impending threat. After obtaining permission to search the starport and impound the infested cargo containers, the characters face the terrorists and must defeat them, as well as track down and stop a lone speeder that manages to leave the port with the dangerous cargo.
The adventure seed also presented an alternative plot line in which the player characters were, in fact, affiliated with the Knights of the Core. In this variation, the characters must smuggle the clodhoppers off Naboo and onto Stend IV, thwarting the efforts of opposing parties on both planets.
The first proper appearance of Stend IV was in "Operation: Clodhopper," a Secrets of Naboo tie-in mini-adventure published on Wizards.com two weeks after the sourcebook. "Operation: Clodhopper" was an expanded and slightly modified version of the alternate variant of "The Defoliation Agenda." This article assumes that as many events as possible of both "Operation: Clodhopper" and the original version of the Secrets of Naboo adventure seed play out as described, merging the plot lines of the two scenarios. Wherever contradictions arise, the online mini-adventure is assumed to take precedence due to its status as a more recent and fleshed-out source.