Aa'kuan

"We practice a philosophy of eternal balance. There is nothing that is so powerful that you must bend your will to it."

―An Aa'kuan champion, to a spacer^[3]

The Aa'kuans were a group of anarchists present in the Corellian system during the Galactic Civil War. The overall conviction of the Aa'kuans was anarchistic. They believed that individuals had the right to govern themselves and that no authority—specifically, no government—should invade anyone's individual space.

Description

"We are members of the True Aakuan Order. We are asking any of those who have a streak of individualism to come forth an help stop a threat to our planet."

―An Aa'kuan champion, to a spacer^[3]

The Aa'kuans took their name from the Old Corellian term aa'kua, meaning respect—or literally, "respecting space". The Aa'kuans believed they had the right to govern themselves and that no authority had the right to invade other sentients' individual space. Their social doctrines being based on anarchy, the Aa'kuans did not believe in the concept of government. They believed in personal freedom, but were mostly pacifist unless sufficiently provoked. However, simply being an unwelcome visitor in their territory was considered sufficient provocation to them, so they were especially dangerous to the uninformed.^[1] They had also developed supply channels to provide themselves with goods without depending on any government.

History

"A powerful anarchist has subverted our order of philosophical thinkers and has brainwashed them. They all need to be killed to bring back the balance to all things."

―An Aa'kuan champion, to a spacer^[3]

The Aa'kuan beliefs, although extreme by most standards, were very prevalent in the independent-minded Corellian system.^[1]

The Aa'kuans were also present on Talus. Their center of operations was a cave in Shadowbrak Ridge, known as the Aa'kuan Champion's Cave.^[2] By the time of the Battle of Yavin, a schism took place and the Aa'kuans on Talus split into two factions: the True Aa'kuan Order and the Aa'kuans living in the Aa'kuan Champion's Cave. The former followed traditional Aa'kuan beliefs while the latter started a bloody crusade against all those who refused to believe their doctrine.^[3] In 1 ABY,^[4] a True Aa'kuan requested a spacer to kill all the bloodthirsty members of the other Aa'kuan community in order to "bring back the balance to all things".^[3]

Behind the scenes

The Aa'kuans are one of the many factions players may gain or lose points with in Star Wars Galaxies.^[5] In Olys Corellisi, Aa'kua meant "respect, respecting personal space".