JEDI HoloNet

Biology and Appearance

Novgari can be identified by pale blue skin, hairy bodies, narrow eyes, and willowy physiques. Some Novgari have inherited a natural shielding of telepathy from their Epicanthix roots, however this is extremely rare. A more common Novgari trait is close companionship with animals, believing them to be capable of fulfilling prophecy. Legends say that the first Novgari settlers conquered a number of the planet’s most dangerous wildlife, becoming seen as the ‘animal kings’ of the once untamed world.

History & Culture

The Novgari are a recently encountered Outer Rim human sub-culture, and near-human species, made up of a melting pot of several refugee communities from the galaxy-spanning destruction of the Yuuzhan Vong War. Their origins predominantly lie in the Epicanthix and Ferroan people who fled their planets to the Outer Rim to escape the destruction of the Yuuzhan Vong. Numbered in the tens of thousands, they have become adept hunters of the ferocious savanna world of Vaal, founding a number of settlements across the planet since ~150 ABY.

Culturally, the Novgari are a collectivistic and honour-bound society, inheriting a number of Ferroan religious beliefs related to their former sentient planet-god. Novgari funerals often consist of leaders of the Novgari, or elderly “folk” leaders, inscribing objects with magical incantations believed to pay homage to the sentient soul of the planet of Vaal.

Language

The Novgari speak a mixed dialect of galactic common, Ferroan, and local trading languages of the systems around Vaal – predominantly Huttese. This mixed dialect is referred to by traders and explorers as ‘Novash’. Novash phonetics sound distinct due to pervasive consonant hardening/softening (palatalization) that changes word meanings, clear vowel distinctions influenced by stress (unstressed ‘o’ and ‘a’ merge to ‘ah’ sound), and less aspiration in consonants compared to Galactic Basic, creating a unique blend of “hard” (tongue back) and “soft” (tongue raised to palate) sounds, often described as melodic or sometimes “whiny”.

Clothing

Novgari tend to wear simple robe-like attire, inspired by the rags their people wore upon their great retreat from the Ferroan/Epicanthix homeworlds during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.