Muza

The Muza were a sentient species native to the planet Muzara, in the Expansion Region. The Muza were large, strong beings with massive overbites and scoop-like teeth. Their forearms were highly muscular. They descended from ruminants and established themselves as the dominant lifeform on their homeworld through the extermination of all large predators there. The species' religious beliefs revered certain areas of their world as sacred and shunned others as unholy. The ruins of Kabus-Dabeh, for instance, were regarded as the former home of an ancient and evil people. As nomadic clansmen, the Muza had no sense of individual property or territory.
In 4000 BBY, Humans from the Brentaal League colonized Muzara and established farms, which angered the Muza. As the dispute between the two species reached the cusp of outright war, a Human Jedi Knight named Keval Raffaan arrived on Muzara and offered to negotiate a peace. The Muza agreed to allow him to attempt to do so—provided he prove his mettle by retrieving a skuhm-hide bag from the ruins of Kabus-Dabeh. The Jedi passed this test, and the Muza honored the truce he negotiated between them and the settlers. Other Jedi helped the Muza overcome a predatory creature that had snatched up members of their species and a group of Dark Jedi who sought to overrun Muzara with a Sith artifact hidden in the Kabus-Dabeh ruins.
==Biology and appearance==
The Muza were hulking, sentient creatures, much taller and heftier than typical Humans. The average Muza had a massive overbite, with the upper jaw and teeth extending over the lower mandible. The species' eyes were minuscule and could be retracted, while the forearms were bulky and strong.
==Society and culture==
The Muza were divided into wandering tribes , p. 148. and clans. These groups roamed the savannas of their homeworld, and dragged supplies, such as tents, behind them on sledges. Each group was headed by a chief clansman. Other Muza served their fellows as shamans , p. 169. and scouts. , p. 168. Members of the species spoke their own language, although they were also capable of learning to speak Basic.
In 4000 BBY, the Muza had access to stone-age technology. Muza were given to bellicosity if their interests were threatened, , p. 152. and they came to dominate their homeworld through brute force of population and their systematic elimination of predatory species. The Muza used tests of integrity, skill, and willpower to determine a being's worth. Muza created items of skuhm leather, such as bags, and they collected coins from other cultures. , p. 164.
The species strongly upheld their cultural beliefs, which included reverence for certain individuals regarded as "bravest protectors." The Muza had no concept of personal property or land ownership. , pp. 151–152. Instead, their relationship to landforms centered on the concept of certain areas being sacred and others being infernal. For example, the Muza regarded the ruins of Kabus-Dabeh—the site of a minor dark side nexus—as evil, the last trace of an ancient and evil people.
==History==
The Muza evolved on Muzara, an arid planet of mesas, savannas, and lakes. The ancient forebears of the species were ruminant grazers. By virtue of their sheer numbers, the Muza came to dominate their world's ecosystem.
Although Muzara had been discovered by outsiders by 5000 BBY, The Essential Atlas, p. 127. it was not until 4000 BBY that offworlders tried to establish a presence there. The newcomers, Human settlers from the Brentaal League, had been sent to found an agricultural colony on the world. The offworlders settled atop a mesa and began to cultivate the land with gigantic machines known as harvester crawlers. Meanwhile, the world became part of the Northern Dependencies in the Expansion Region. The Essential Atlas, p. 36. Nearby Muza tribes approached the outsiders but were met with hostility; a Human farmer named Tallov Kersk greeted the Muza with blaster rifles. The Muza, due to their ingrained cultural belief that land could not be owned, failed to recognize the Humans' claim to their farms. Although the Brentaal League settlers tried to negotiate with the indigenous species, their efforts proved fruitless. By 4000 BBY, the aggressive Muza outnumbered the settlers 55,000 to 7,800. The settlers thus brought their grievances to the attention of the Jedi Knights to try to avert what seemed to be an inevitable war. The Jedi dispatched a young Human member of their order named Keval Raffaan to mediate the dispute.
A group of Muza had set up camp near the Brentaal League settler's population center. When Raffaan approached them and expressed his desire to negotiate peace between the Muza and the settlers, the clan chiefs decided that he would first have to prove himself worthy by passing a test of integrity, skill, and willpower. The chief clansman explained that the Human Jedi would have to infiltrate the ruins of Kabus-Dabeh, a location reputed by the Muza to be the last trace of an ancient and evil people. There, they explained, Raffaan would have to find a leather skuhm-skin bag that contained ancient coins and had been placed there by a Muza bravest protector. Should he retrieve the bag and return to the Muza settlement, the elders would recognize Raffaan's right to mediate the dispute with the farmers. The Jedi accepted the challenge.
Raffaan eventually recovered the bag of coins from a subterranean chamber accessible via a deep well. When he presented the bag to the Muza clansmen, they accepted his authority to mediate their dispute. The Jedi then successfully negotiated a truce between the Muza and the settlers.
After recognizing the Humans' rights to their farmland, one tribe of Muza was forced to set up camp two kilometers from the dreaded Kabus-Dabeh ruins. Over several nights, Muza began to disappear, seemingly stolen away by some predator from the unholy place. Muza scouts tried to locate their missing confreres, but all they could establish was that the attacker had struck from the ruins. The Muza thus called in a group of Jedi to find the source of the attacks and put a stop to them.
The Jedi investigated Kabus-Dabeh and found the attacker: a pitiful creature known as Togarn. They defeated him and thus put an end to his predations on the Muza tribe.
Some time later, Muza shamans discovered that an evil force seemed to be emanating from Kabus-Dabeh. They determined that if the evil was left unchecked, it would overrun not only Muzara but the entire Muzara system. They approached the Human settlers to enlist their aid to combat the evil force, but the farmers could not understand the shamans and simply ignored them. A shuttle landed near the ruins, and its three passengers questioned the Muza and the Humans about Kabus-Dabeh. They then set off into the ancient site. At that point, a group of Jedi was dispatched to follow the newcomers and determine their intentions for the site.
The Jedi stopped the strangers, who were actually Dark Jedi on an investigation into Sith teachings and were trying to find a Sith artifact in Kabus-Dabeh. In so doing, the Jedi spared the Muza, the Human settlers, and the Muzara system from being overwhelmed by the forces the Dark Jedi had intended to unleash.
From 1004 BBY to 1000 BBY, Muzara fell within territory controlled by the Galactic Republic as it fought the Sith in the New Sith Wars. The Essential Atlas, p. 133. The Muzara homeworld remained in Republic space during the Clone Wars in 20 and 19 BBY. The Essential Atlas, p. 150. After the defeat of Emperor Palpatine, the Muza's planet fell within territory retained by the Galactic Empire from 7 to 8 ABY. The Essential Atlas, p. 198. By 137 ABY, the world fell within Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire. The Essential Atlas, p. 226.
==Behind the scenes==
The Muza feature in "Ruins of Kabus-Dabeh," a solitaire adventure written by Peter M. Schweighofer for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game and published by West End Games as part of Tales of the Jedi Companion in 1996. The adventure allows for the player, portraying Keval Raffaan, to fail, in which case the negotiations between the Muza and the Brentaal League settlers fail and war ensues. The book provides two further adventure seeds that involve the Muza; the history above assumes that the unnamed Jedi characters achieve the stated goals, defeating the creature Togarn and stopping the Dark Jedi from unleashing evil from the Sith artifact located in the ruins.
==Appearances==
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==Notes and references==
Category:Expansion Region species