"I never liked the way this planet /smells/. It smells like deceit."
"Don't be a fool, Lampur. It smells like rebellion. And to me, that smells
like fun." -- Quintus Ashe to his aide on surveying Bothawui for conquest
Bothawui has seen much turmoil since the establishment of the Empire. Bothan society has made increasing use of military technology as
successive regimes tried to bully or control the commercial and intel
assets of the Bothan people. In the early days, before the Empire and
after, Bothawui sent out colony ships to various worlds, establishing
satellite societies that relied upon Bothan goods and allowed the Bothans
to ensure their economy would continue even when events in the wider
galaxy forced them to become insular.
In the time of the Empire, just after Yavin, Bothawui was punished for its
support of the Rebel Alliance when a trio of Victory Class Star Destroyers
raked turbo lasers over the great cities. This act, known as the Reaving
in Bothan society, saw the social fabric of Bothawui begin to unravel.
With people forced from the ruins of the cities by Stormtrooper garrisons,
Bothans had to embrace the military ideas they had long shunned as a last
resort. The wilderness of Bothawui had become no more gentle in the
millennia since their ancestors first carved out cities in the jungles and
so the clans each went their own way as readymade resistance cells. The
ancient method of rule, the Clan Council, was re-established to govern the
society as a whole and eventually, as the Rebels pushed in from the Rim,
the Bothans were able to seize back the smoldering ruins of their world.
While Bothawui was cut off, the minor colonies were forced to unify to
supply their needs. The clans even co-operated with the Empire as much as
was required to ensure their safety. It was here that the ideals of the
Bothan society held true and the Bothan Trading Company was re-established
on the colony of Kothlis. Once Bothawui was free the Offworld Bothans, led
by the commercial Clan Vreeth, returned to Homeworld to find it changed.
Long years of war and hardship had forged a harder and crueler society,
where refinement had been abandoned in favour of the efficiency of war.
Entire families within a clan were now given over to military aspirations,
with young Bothans being taken out into the Bothan wilds to hunt and claim
the blood of the wild beasts that roamed the jungles.
The Offworld Bothans saw this as something they had to rectify and so the
Trading Company moved in to rebuild Corporate City and re-establish Bothan
society along the lines of the Offworld Clans. This move was not admired
by the clans who remained on Bothawui. They saw the Offworld Clans as mere
traitors and collaborators. The clans who had remained on Bothawui, led
by clans Ilan, Alya, and Khan, repulsed this perceived invasion using tools
captured from the invading Imperials. After a protracted civil war, the
Clan Council emerged victorious over the Trading Company and the Offworld
Clans retreated back to the colonies. The Offworld Clans, shocked by the
shift in Bothan culture, declared themselves guardians of 'Bothan values.'
After the Offworld Clans left, Clan Khan took up residence in the partly-
rebuilt Corporate City, abandoning the nomadic lifestyle of the Reaving.
Over the next few decades Bothan society developed with Clan Khan shifting
slowly towards the ways of old while clans Ilan and Alya also softened in
their approach. However the Offworld Clans had found new friends to help
them achieve their aims in the intervening decades. People who professed
to share the desire of restoring Bothan society, as was, to the Bothan
Homeworld. So it was with new weapons and troops from these shadowy hidden
friends that Clan Vreeth returned at the head of a flotilla to reclaim
Bothawui for 'true Bothan Culture'. As the ships lumbered into low orbit,
the Clan Council convened and realised that it was not in the position of
a hundred years; it could not repulse the Offworld Clans. Negotiations
began with the sword of the Offworld Navy hanging over their heads, and
the Clan Council accepted subservience to the Bothan Trading Company once
more.
After the Return, Corporate City was taken by Clan Vreeth for the
headquarters of this new united Bothan empire and the rebuilding of a
hundred years before was completed, buildings not seen on Bothawui since
the pre-Empire days.
The militaries of the Clans were banned and the Clan Council was forbidden
from possessing lethal weaponry, proclaimed as a measure to help the
Bothawui clans rediscover their roots. Over time limited police forces
were permitted, armed with non-lethal weaponry, but the power rested with
the Trading Company and its unknown backers. Over time these backers were
given the presidency of the Trading Company by the Offworld Clans, who
were permitted in turn to run the company day to day through a trio of
vice-presidents, all from Offworld Clans like Clan Vreeth. Corporate City
itself was reserved so only non-Bothans and Offworld Bothans were
permitted residency, policies designed for the safety of the numerically
smaller Offworld presence.
These acts however helped to ensure that the authority of the Trading
Company extends little further than the walls of Corporate City. While
some clans, such as Clan Khan, were willing to work with Clan Vreeth so
that their clan members did not suffer and could benefit from the
arrangements, other clans were not so willing. These clans still sit with
the Clan Council and attend the meetings of the toothless organisation.
Behind closed doors they plot, and rumours emerge. Rumours of old caches
left over from the days of the Reaving. Of the Bothan military forces of
yore. Weapons cached when war first came to Bothawui in the days of
Chancellor Bellamy. Stories dismissed by all as the tales of overexcited
children and bitter old men. However, suspicion and distrust reigns on
Bothawui between the Clans and recent Clan Council meetings have demanded
the restoration of native Bothan rights.
