                                Star Wars 

                           Wizard's RPG Stories

          source : http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=starwars/newsarchive
          upload : 10.IV.2006


     Tales of Nub Saar

     By Morrie Mullins

     One of the greatest tragedies in the early efforts  to  colonize  Cularin
was the floating city of Nub Saar. This documentary speculates on what  forces
(other than the radiation storms for which  Genarius  is  famous)  might  have
played a role in the destruction of the city. It's our  latest  supplement  to
the Living Force campaign!

     Camera crews are not allowed on the floating city of Nub  Saar.  "Safety"
is the only reason given when anyone questions why this is the case. As  such,
a great deal of the footage utilized in the making  of  this  documentary  has
been reconstructed from still images taken  from  the  archives  of  the  Jedi
Academy on Almas and from other historical documents archived  throughout  the
system. The algorithms used to re-create  critical  events  at  Nub  Saar  are
accurate insofar as  key  variables  (e.g.,  currents  in  the  atmosphere  of
Genarius) are understood and capable of being tracked through  the  historical
record. It is clearly impossible to include every possible  variable  in  such
algorithms, and to the extent that we failed to consider all elements  of  the
environment, the accuracy of our depiction will  suffer.  We  ask  viewers  to
retain an  open  mind  in  spite  of  this  unavoidable  shortcoming  of  this
documentary effort.

     Hello. My name is Dazen Mok. A year ago, I left my studies  at  the  Jedi
Academy on Almas to pursue a career researching the  history  of  the  Cularin
system. This research represented a passion I could not release. Not  everyone
is cut out to be a Jedi, and while I salute my former companions in the Order,
I believe I have chosen correctly.

     The research that demonstrated to me that my commitment lay to  areas  of
study outside the purview of the Jedi Order had to do with Nub Saar,  and  the
circumstances surrounding the disappearance and presumed death of the original
settlers of that floating city.

     A still image appears of a floating city within the clouds of Genarius. A
radiation storm covers the upper portions of  the  city.  Bolts  of  blue  and
orange light stretch between the superstructures,  grisly  metal  frames  like
glowing droid skeletons among the clouds.

     The commonly accepted wisdom about Nub Saar is that it was an unfortunate
learning experience for those who wanted to "settle" Genarius. That is,  there
is a point in the atmosphere beneath  which  it  is  unsafe  to  build.  While
gravity may allow for the existence of  structures  beneath  that  point,  the
radiation storms are intense enough that anything not constructed to withstand
the forces of, say, hyperspace travel, will not be able to hold together.

     I became convinced, after working on a research project for  a  class  in
dark side phenomena at the academy, that this explanation was both technically
correct and overly simplistic. I will first present my  reasoning  why  it  is
overly simplistic - - that is, what it leaves out - - and  then  I'll  present
simulations and the results of a number of  interviews  with  individuals  who
claim to have been to Nub Saar and explored some  of  its  surface  levels  to
support my thesis.

     You may notice that even though I'm no longer a Jedi, there  is  still  a
strong emphasis on the Force as an explanation for Nub Saar. The fact  that  I
chose to turn in my lightsaber in no way implies that I would  deny  that  the
Force does, in fact, permeate all things. It  must  be  at  the  core  of  any
explanation we  offer  for  something  we  don't  understand,  because  it  is
demonstrably at the core of any explanation for things  we  do  understand.  I
make no apologies for this perspective, as it is the only one I  have,  and  I
believe it to be the only useful, healthy way to try to understand our galaxy.

     The same image of the city, shrouded  in  a  brilliant  radiation  storm,
reappears on the screen. Then the clouds begin to swirl, the  arcs  of  energy
ripping and jerking from one frame  to  another,  and  the  city's  foundation
shaking. At the bottom of the screen  appear  the  words,  "Probabilistic  re-
enactment" appear. We hear Mok in voice-over as the storm pounds  relentlessly
on Nub Saar.

     Many of us have experienced the radiation storms of  Genarius.  I  myself
was on Tolea Biqua almost two years ago when a radiation storm  threatened  to
wipe the city out entirely as the shields almost  failed.  Tolea  Biqua  still
exists, though, as it has since it  was  constructed.  Its  shields  have  not
failed, but if  they  had  during  any  of  the  many  radiation  storms  it's
weathered, everyone who lives on the city would have been killed.  Every  man,
woman, and child would have perished.

     The image shifts to a man on the streets  of  Tolea  Biqua,  standing  in
front of "Riboga's Barge," the famous cantina.  He  shakes  his  head.  "Never
happen. See, thing is, we're far enough out that we don't  gotta  worry  about
getting fried like that. Nub Saar, that was just bad planning. Way too far in.
Too close to the planet core." His image fades, and we again see Mok. Now he's
seated at a desk, hands folded in front of him.

     This is a common interpretation. But consider this.

     He presses a button on the desk  and  a  holographic  image  of  Genarius
appears, rotating in front of him. A bright red spot glows within its clouds.

     This is the location of Nub Saar. Please note its proximity to  the  core
of Genarius. Now, let's take a look at Tolea Biqua.

     Another glowing spot appears. It's on the opposite  side  of  the  planet
from Nub Saar, but is almost the same distance from the planet's core  as  the
red spot.

     If you read published materials on Nub Saar, you might have learned  that
the difference  in  altitude  between  Tolea  Biqua  and  Nub  Saar  is  2,313
kilometers. My own research has determined this to be inaccurate.  The  actual
difference between Tolea Biqua's distance to the  core  of  Genarius  and  Nub
Saar's is 2,313 meters. Less than three  kilometers.  Proximity  enough  seems
unlikely to be the sole cause of the disturbance at Nub Saar.

     The difference is that one of the cities came first, and  the  city  that
came first, for lack of a better word, awoke something deep within the clouds.
I'm not talking about the cochlera, either. I'm talking about  something  much
darker,  much  angrier.  It  awoke  something  I  believe  to  be  akin  to  a
manifestation of the dark side of the Force.

     Like many of you, I?ve heard stories about what happened  when  a  fallen
Jedi named Karae Nalvas created his own  floating  fortress  deep  within  the
clouds of Genarius, with hopes to conquer the  other  cities  and  potentially
drop Genarius into a civil war. * He both built and populated it at  a  deeper
level than Nub Saar was built at, yet he managed to build it successfully.  It
was only through the intervention of the heroes of Cularin that he  failed  to
accomplish his goals. When his fortress of Conkesta was destroyed,  those  who
were responsible for bringing an end to Nalvas?s plans report a burst of  dark
side energy much greater than anything the  fallen  Jedi  himself  could  have
hoped to control. Whatever it is that destroyed Nub Saar, I  believe  that  it
actually helped Nalvas create his fortress.

     If this sounds like the kind of story you might tell a child to scare him
into behaving, that's because it is. There is something within  Genarius  that
we do not understand, cannot control, and must not trust. The explanation that
the radiation storms destroyed Nub Saar is overly simplistic because  it  does
nothing to explain where the radiation storms come from. Storms do not  simply
begin for no reason, any more than a lightsaber  can  ignite  for  no  reason.
There must be a trigger. Something must change the way the Force flows through
the lightsaber in order to ignite it, and something must change how the  Force
flows through the clouds to bring about a storm like the  one  that  destroyed
Nub Saar, or the one that threatened to destroy Tolea  Biqua.  Destruction  is
the way of the dark side. As such, it can only be the dark  side  itself  -  -
manifested in the experience of those  who  assisted  in  the  destruction  of
Conkesta - - that caused the city of Nub Saar to fail, and that killed all who
were on the city when the storm hit.

     I'd like to conclude with commentary from an individual who has  been  to
Nub Saar twice, on exploratory missions. She chose to  retain  her  anonymity,
since visiting Nub Saar may not be illegal but is extremely inadvisable.  This
has become even more pronounced with the regular appearance of Cularin Militia
patrols in the area surrounding Nub Saar. The individual with whom I spoke was
actually almost captured by the Militia on her last visit  to  the  city,  but
even without that close call, she would have been unlikely to return again  in
the future. I'll let you hear it in her own words.

     Mok disappears and we see the silhouette of  what  is  probably  a  Human
female. When she speaks, her voice  has  the  characteristic  rattle-grind  of
having been masked.

     I've seen a lot of strange things, been to a lot  of  unpleasant  places.
Back before the Jedi started protecting it the way they do now, I once made it
into the upper levels of the Sith fortress on Almas.  That's  about  the  only
place I've ever been that feels more wrong than Nub Saar.

     It's like, you step on the place, and you can tell there's been a lot  of
dying. But it's not just something in the past. It's like, there's still dying
going on. It's like  you're  standing  in  a  room  with  someone,  and  their
respirator is failing, and you watch it keep getting slower and slower. But it
never quite stops. They're dying, but they can't finish, so they're always  on
the brink, not really alive, not really dead.

     That's what Nub Saar feels like. It's  like  you're  in  a  place  that's
almost dead, that wants to be dead, but  that  isn't  being  allowed  to  die.
Because that fear, that adrenaline  of  the  last  fight  against  death  -  -
something is using it.

     I went into Nub Saar the first time looking  for  loot.  I  went  in  the
second time looking for answers. If I went in again, I don't  think  I'd  come
back out. I don't think it would let me go.

     The screen goes black. Then the  words,  "For  more  information,  please
visit the following holonet nodes?" appear, followed by a series of  addresses
that scroll past rapidly, then are gone.