Tenek (planet)

Tenek was a forested planet with an electrically charged atmosphere that was located in the Mid Rim's Manda sector. It was home to vinna trees, the metallic bark of which conducted lightning strikes into the ground where the electrical charge was subsequently fed upon by the worms known as Raen sovra. The burrowing of the sovra in the soil surrounding the vinna trees' roots in turn contributed to an increased fertility in Tenek's forests.
The planet was also inhabited by several forms of the carnivorous somago creatures, which preyed upon Tenek's herbivores. Both sovra and the somagos eventually spread off-world, with the former becoming a significant pest in the wider galaxy due to their feeding on electricity and metal. As a result, Tenek and the rest of its star system had been placed under quarantine by the time of the reign of the Galactic Empire.
==Description==
===Electric forests===
Tenek was a planet situated in the Mis-Tenek system, a part of the Manda sector in the Slice portion of the Mid Rim. A terrestrial world, Tenek had forests and grasslands on its surface, and its skies were filled with electrical energy that led to lightning strikes.
The vinna tree was a species of tree that had adapted itself to the conditions on Tenek. The trunks of the vinna trees were completely covered in a thick layer of metal that served as an extremely effective conductor. When lightning struck one of the trees, the electricity was discharged through the plant's root system into the surrounding damp ground.
The resultant electrical charge filling the ground was then consumed by millions of Raen sovra—up to eight meters–long segmented worms with metal exoskeletons that primarily fed on electricity and metal and were capable of delivering an electrical shock when threatened. The sovra burrowed through the ground surrounding vinna tree roots and constantly tilled the soil. As a result, the transfer of water and minerals to the roots of Tenek's forest plants was greatly facilitated. While similar mutually beneficial relationships between plant and animal species existed on many other worlds of the galaxy, the system developed on Tenek was especially efficient due to the sovra feeding on electrical charge, which meant that the plants could draw nourishment from a larger amount of organic nutrients.
===Net-shaped hunters===
Another type of creature that, despite living far from Tenek's vinna tree forests, contributed to the fertility of the planet's soil was the somago, which was related to the sovra. The somago, of which there were several forms, had a net-shaped body with a metal exoskeleton. It was a carnivore that primarily preyed on herbivores roaming through Tenek's forests and killed them by dropping down on them from trees and then squeezing or choking them to death.
The most common form of the somago were flat sheet somagos, which hunted smaller herbivores and also fed upon carrion. Other forms included the rectangular saddle somago, which preyed on the long-necked tils of Tenek's grasslands, and the tapestry somago, which fed by ensnaring flying creatures. The rarest form of the somago was the small helmet somago, which was shaped like a fifty centimeter–long and thirty-five centimeter–wide tube.
==History==
===Origin of a pest===
At some point, Doctor Safford Raen led an ill-fated expedition to the Mis-Tenek system with the goal of studying the development of Tenek's vinna trees and discovering the process through which they acquired their metallic bark. After a number of the expedition's researchers were electrocuted while studying the root system of the trees, Raen discovered the sovra creatures, which eventually were named after the doctor.
The sovra were attracted to any starships that landed on Tenek and often entered them and left the planet undetected, which eventually led to the creatures spreading across the galaxy and becoming a significant pest due to the damage they caused to artificial structures, such as ships and buildings. As a result, the entire Mis-Tenek system, including Tenek, had been placed under quarantine by the time of the reign of the Galactic Empire, which collected sovra for military applications research. Many zoological researchers, intrigued by the creatures' anatomy and physiology, were violently opposed to the system's quarantine, and smugglers continued to land their starships on Tenek, allowing for the sovra to keep spreading off-world.
===Unusual species===
Inexplicably, Tenek's native somago creatures—chiefly helmet somagos—also spread to other star systems. The effectiveness with which the helmet somagos preyed on Humanoids, as attested by reports transmitted by the second REV Survey team, was anomalous due to the nonexistence of any extant animals on Tenek with such a body plan.
A majority of the galaxy's zoologists thereby theorized that the creatures were an evolutionary throwback to a more ancient period of the planet's history when it must have been inhabited by Humanoids. The quarantine of the Mis-Tenek system, however, prevented the discovery of any proof for that theory. Contrarily, some zoologists instead postulated that the helmet somagos had been created by the Empire via genetic manipulation. During the Empire's reign, Tenek was eventually mentioned in an entry of a holobrochure for the Tagge Holographic Museum of the planet Chandrila dedicated to the somagos and the sovra.
==Behind the scenes==
Tenek was introduced in the 1994 sourcebook Creatures of the Galaxy, published by West End Games for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. The section of the book mentioning the planet was authored by Chuck Truett. The 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas placed the Mis-Tenek system, and therefore Tenek, in grid square S-15.
==Sources==
*Creatures of the Galaxy 
==Notes and references==
Category:Arboreal planets
Category:Manda sector planets