Volik

Located in the Unknown Regions of the galaxy, Volik was a planet positioned within the Volik system. A single day on Volik spanned twenty-six standard hours, and the planet's orbital period, or year, consisted of 410 local days. The planet was orbited by two moons, with one appearing significantly large in the sky. Volik possessed standard gravity and a Type I atmosphere, which was breathable and comfortable for the sentient Human species, and where strong winds, low-lying clouds, and vapor formations were common.

Volik's surface was divided into continents and featured at least one sea. The terrain was primarily rocky, with the main continent being characterized by grasslands strewn with boulders, separated by modest mountain ranges. Intricate canyon systems, carved by runoff from the mountains and linked to the sea, were a prominent feature. Periodic cave-ins and other natural events caused inaccuracies in maps of the canyons. The planet also boasted numerous impressive waterfalls, formed by rivers cascading from the tops of tall bluffs into the sea, which also served as entrances to caverns located beneath the bluffs.

Volik enjoyed a temperate climate with four distinct seasons, including a moderate rainy season. While snow was absent, the deeper canyons and mountaintops experienced freezing conditions during the colder periods. Flooding was common in the canyons, and flash floods could rapidly transform dry plains into fast-flowing rivers in a matter of seconds.

Volik's plant life included the towering bannak trees, found in the foothills and valued for their timber; tanna trees, which produced large, purple, edible fruit that formed a dietary staple for the planet's inhabitants; and a light-blue grass that covered the plains, reaching heights of up to one meter. The mumau root was also present in the mountains at high altitudes, particularly on the slopes of Mount Vorena, the planet's tallest peak. Jedi Master Dorin Se'ol, a former resident of Volik, believed that tea made from the mumau root aided meditation.

The planet's wildlife included predators that relied on speed and ambush tactics to hunt prey on the plains and in the mountains, as well as birds and other aerial creatures that nested in trees near the mountains. The most prevalent animal on Volik was the reyko, a large, powerful, yet docile herd animal similar to the bantha. Reykos grazed on grass and possessed a hard, chitinous skin that provided camouflage, resembling a boulder to deter predators. Pirates and smugglers based on Volik frequently utilized reykos as beasts of burden. Furthermore, the reyko's skin was resistant to blasterfire, leading criminals to occasionally employ the herbivores to ram rival gangs' vehicles.

Volik was initially discovered by a survey team from the Czerka Mining Corporation sometime before the Sith Lord Darth Nihilus died in 3951 BBY, although no significant mineral deposits were found. Subsequently, the rights to colonize the world were sold to Vekanda Leisure Colonies, and settlement occurred during the height of the Galactic Republic. The company then commenced the construction of a resort colony designed for wealthy patrons, offering opportunities to hunt local wildlife and enjoy exotic foods.

However, Vekanda soon encountered financial difficulties, resulting in the abandonment of the colony and Volik itself. No other business attempted to purchase the rights to reestablish it. Throughout Volik's history, both the Jedi and Sith Orders maintained small outposts on the planet, with numerous Jedi residing there over time. Rumors also circulated regarding the location of Count Czazizs' vast treasure somewhere on the remote world.

An unsanctioned swoop race once took place within Volik's canyons. A group of individuals indebted to a crime lord participated in the race, hoping to settle their debt with the substantial prize money. The crime lord, seeking to prevent their escape from debt, bribed other swoop pilots to sabotage the group's chances. During the race, one of the crime lord's henchmen herded reykos onto the racing course, creating a dangerous situation.

Following Vekanda Leisure Colonies' abandonment of Volik, various pirate and smuggler groups began operating from the planet, often engaging in conflicts for control. These clashes sometimes led to the complete annihilation of gangs, leaving Volik uninhabited for decades until new criminal elements arrived.

Around this time, two pirate factions—the Crimson Stars, led by the Human Vallkos, and the Ebon Strikers, commanded by Vallkos' brother, Mallikhan—established themselves on Volik. A female from their shared past fueled a bitter rivalry between the two pirate leaders. This conflict between the Crimson Stars and the Ebon Strikers eventually threatened to erupt into widespread violence.

During this period, a group of individuals sought out the female in question, hoping she could help them mediate the volatile situation on Volik.

During the era of Darth Nihilus, the Wavelength Gale was the most dominant smuggling organization on Volik. After Nihilus' demise, the Dynamic-class freighter Nashuaga, carrying the mask of Darth Nihilus concealed within the freighter captain's secret compartment, crashed in a hidden cove on Volik, which served as the Wavelength Gale's base.

Sando, a Rodian smuggler and pirate operating in the Unknown Regions near Volik, led a small group of criminals known as Sando's Boys in scavenging abandoned smuggler bases within Volik's caverns after the death of Darth Plagueis in 32 BBY. During one of these expeditions, Sando discovered the cargo manifest of an ancient freighter, revealing information about the long-lost mask of Darth Nihilus. The Rodian resolved to locate the artifact and sell it to the highest bidder.

Around the same time, another group of individuals arrived on Volik, also seeking the mask of Darth Nihilus. They ascended Mount Vorena and reactivated the landing beacon that had been placed there by the Wavelength Gale millennia earlier. Using the beacon, they pinpointed the location of the Wavelength Gale's abandoned base. However, while still on Mount Vorena's summit, the group was ambushed by Collan Eislo, a noble and leader of the Sith cult Apex Society, along with his Society allies. Eislo had also tracked the mask to Volik, intending to acquire it for his own purposes, and attempted to extract its location from the group.

Eislo's rivals in the search for the mask confronted the young noble and proceeded to the Wavelength Gale's hidden cove, only to encounter Sando's Boys, who were already searching the wreck of the Nashuaga for the mask. A battle ensued when the criminals noticed the newcomers, resulting in Sando's Boys' defeat. The victors then discovered the mask of Darth Nihilus within the remains of the Nashuaga.

Shortly after the Clone Wars concluded in 19 BBY, Jedi Master Dorin Se'ol arrived on Volik and began to rebuild the colony. Se'ol married a woman named Vorena, with whom he had a daughter named Jolee, and also organized and taught a community of Force-sensitive beings on Volik, which managed to chase the smugglers off the planet. Vorena's eventual death caused Se'ol to have a brief struggle with the dark side of the Force. The Jedi Master climbed to the top of Mount Vorena after his wife's death in order to meditate.

A group of Jedi apprentices were sent to the Volik as part of their training at some point in the planet's history. The trainees were instructed to climb Mount Vorena in seven days' time, packing nothing but their lightsabers. After a difficult climb that included foraging and protecting themselves against the strong winds and local predators, the apprentices met their Jedi Master on the mountain's top, who then bestowed the rank of Jedi Knight to the members of the group.

During Dorin Se'ol's time living on Volik, a trader starship made a brief stop at the planet, and Se'ol's young daughter, Jolee, boarded the vessel without his knowledge. Se'ol consequently tasked a group of his students to retrieve his daughter, and the students eventually found the merchant vessel.

While residing on Volik, Dorin Se'ol managed to evade the attention of the Sith Lord Darth Vader for a period of time. However, Vader eventually discovered the Jedi Master's location, leading to an Imperial assault on the planet. During the attack, Se'ol distracted Vader long enough for a small group of his students to escape Volik before the Jedi Master perished.

When the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong species invaded the galaxy between the years 25 and 29 ABY, a small group of Force-sensitive pacifists discovered a holocron that contained Se'ol's teachings. These pacifists then learned of Volik's existence and settled on the planet, where they remained until the end of that conflict. During the time of the Second Imperial Civil War a century later, smugglers avoided Volik, considering the planet to be bad luck.

Although Vekanda Leisure Colonies had intended to transform Volik into a resort destination for wealthy travelers, the planet was ultimately abandoned and later inhabited by pirates and smugglers. Among the most prominent pirate groups on Volik were the Crimson Stars and the Ebon Strikers, led by the Human brothers Vallkos and Mallikhan, respectively. Skirmishes in space above Volik sometimes occurred when the Ebon Strikers raided Crimson Star ships returning from resupply and trading runs in the Outer Rim. The world also provided refuge to two distinct communities of Force-sensitive individuals, one during the reign of the Galactic Empire and another during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.

Humans constituted ninety-five percent of Volik's sentient population, with other species making up the remainder. However, the planet was sometimes left completely uninhabited, sometimes for decades. Such instances occurred after the most brutal conflicts between the pirates and smugglers, then again between the time of the Galactic Empire's assault on the planet and the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, and once again during the Second Imperial Civil War. Despite the prevailing anarchy, the original resort, known as the Colony, was considered the planet's capital. Volik had no major exports to offer; foodstuffs and luxury goods had to be imported on the planet.

The original resort offered repulsorlift-equipped wind skiffs constructed from bannak tree wood, allowing visitors to traverse Volik's expansive grasslands. Over time, smuggling gangs commandeered these vehicles, stripping them for parts or damaging them in raids. Some gangs, however, modified the wind skiffs into wind-driven wheeled vehicles.

Volik's numerous rocky canyons served as ideal and challenging race routes for swoop racers. When pirates began operating from the planet, they found the canyons well-suited for storing their starfighters, stolen goods, weapons, and contraband. However, occasional rainy weather caused flash floods that washed the criminals' loot out to the sea. The mountains on the planet also featured numerous waterfalls, which the local smugglers used to evade pursuit, with good piloting skills required to fly underneath them. Akriva Falls was named after Akriva, a notorious Mon Calamari pirate who would fly underneath the falls' arcs to avoid pursuers.

Mount Vorena, the tallest mountain on Volik, was named in honor of Jedi Master Dorin Se'ol's deceased wife. A river originating from the melting ice atop Mount Vorena cascaded down the mountain's rocky face, culminating in the Jolee Falls, an impressive waterfall named after Se'ol and Vorena's daughter. Landing a vehicle on Mount Verona's peak was nearly impossible due to strong winds, and climbing the mountain was difficult and dangerous due to rockslides and predators. However, the view from the summit was considered spectacular.

The Wavelength Gale smuggler band installed a small transmitter beacon atop Mount Vorena, which remained there for millennia. After Se'ol ascended to the top of Mount Vorena, the mountain became a destination for Jedi, who climbed it in order to contact the Force spirits of their teachers and comrades. By the time of the Second Imperial Civil War, Mount Vorena was avoided by pilots regardless of their belief in superstition, and several Force-sensitive individuals sensed a strange presence surrounding the mountain, one of possible explanations being that a Jedi that had once lived on Volik had returned there in spirit form.

The leader of the Wavelength Gale smuggler band chose a large, half-submerged cove on Volik as the group's base. The cove was located in a large, open strip of a cavern that had walls on opposing sides and looked like it was formed by an avalanche, and could only be reached by traveling on foot through narrow, winding caverns that started near the base of Mount Vorena. The pirates found the cove easy to defend, since it could not be accessed from air and the tunnels that served as its entrance were dark and dangerous. At some point, the Nashuaga, a Dynamic-class freighter, crash-landed in the cove and came to rest half-buried in mud and rock and half-sunken in the waters of the cove.

Eventually, the Wavelength Gale abandoned its base, which was left with hundreds of scattered crates. Millennia later, the criminal group Sando's Boys attempted to find the mask of Darth Nihilus on the wreck of the Nashuaga. To this end, the criminals dug a tunnel through rock that allowed access to the ship and set up a perimeter of glow lamps to illuminate the area.

After acquiring the rights to colonize Volik, Vekanda Leisure Colonies began constructing the Colony, a luxurious resort situated in the shadow of Mount Vorena. The resort featured a central concourse and buildings constructed from bannak tree wood, including the main building, which had small dorms on the lower floors and large penthouses near the roof. A large crystal sculpture, designed to welcome visitors to the resort, was installed as a centerpiece of a massive fountain. Other colony buildings were located in different parts of the planet, including a few cabins near Mount Vorena that were meant for visitors interested in climbing.

When Vekanda abandoned the planet, all construction on the resort was left unfinished, with the planned spaceport yet to be completed and several of its landing bays still just sandpits surrounded by construction materials. The central concourse was left stripped of everything valuable.

When pirates and smugglers moved in the abandoned resort, they repurposed the buildings, yet left them standing, and they offered their new inhabitants a level of comfort not provided by typical pirate bases, such as asteroid fields.

The main building was used by the criminals at various points as a warehouse and a prison, among other uses, although it was most often occupied by the smuggler gang that was the most successful on Volik at the time. However, since many gangs broke up as a result of infighting after moving in the building, some smuggler groups refused to take up residence there even when given the opportunity. The penthouses of the main building were usually reserved for the leaders of the smuggler gangs but sometimes were just set up to look that way in order to mislead their enemies.

The smugglers left most of the other colony buildings vacant, since Volik's canyons were easier to defend and therefore better for setting up camp. Jedi Master Dorin Se'ol used a few of the cabins near Mount Vorena for his own use and that of his students, and it was later rumored that such Jedi artifacts as lightsabers and holocrons were hidden in the vicinity of these buildings.

The location of the old resort's crystal sculpture served the pirates and smugglers as a neutral site for negotiations. When the sculpture was stolen on occasion, the criminals temporarily ceased any hostilities in order to retrieve the sculpture and punish those who had stolen it.

Volik was first presented in The Unknown Regions, a sourcebook for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game developed by Wizards of the Coast. Sterling Hershey, Rodney Thompson, and Daniel Wallace authored The Unknown Regions, which was published in 2010. Within that book, Volik was featured in multiple adventure seeds designed for use with the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, including the mini-adventure "The Mask of Darth Nihilus." This article assumes all of those scenarios play out as described. The StarWars.com Online Companion to the 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas situated the Volik system, and consequently the planet, within grid square H-7.