Nadiem

This article is nominated to be highlighted as a Featured article!

Feel free to review this article's entry and voice your opinion.

"My world was caught in the middle. We had little to offer either side. We were attacked mainly because the Republic chose to defend us."

―Crys Taanzer, about Nadiem^[4]

Nadiem was an Outer Rim Territories planet located in the Baxel sector. It was home to a population of farmers, including both Humans and members of other species. During the Clone Wars, it had little to offer either the Galactic Republic or the Confederacy of Independent Systems, yet the latter nevertheless launched an attack on it due to the former choosing to defend it. The Republic carried out evacuations of the planet's settlements, during which the local Crys Taanzer gave up her son Kennan for training as a Jedi, which allowed him to be granted priority evacuation off Nadiem.

The Confederacy's General Grievous sent its droid army to attack a main settlement; however, it was defeated by a Republic force led by Jedi Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee. On the far side of the planet, during Grievous's escape from Nadiem, he severely injured Jedi Master B'dard Tone and killed his Padawan Zephata'ru'tor. Years later, both Taanzer and Tone would recall their experiences on Nadiem in conversations with others. In 2 BBY, the smuggler Han Solo would also invoke Nadiem as part of a cover story told to a Galactic Empire border patrol for a starship smuggling operation he and his partner Chewbacca were carrying out.

Description

Nadiem was a remote planet^[5] located in the Nadiem system, a part of the Baxel sector^[1] in the Slice portion of^[2] the Outer Rim Territories.^[1] Its surface featured mountains as well as areas of more level terrain covered with grass and rocks.^[3]

The Threadneedle Canyon was a crescent-shaped, high-walled^[6] canyon on Nadiem with one vertical side, along which flowed a stream of water. Shrubs grew on both sides of the canyon, with the more inclined side also being home to a type of small, red-fruited tree as well as a dark-green lizard and a large centipede of the same color. A type of flying creature also resided in the vicinity of the canyon.^[3]

History

A world caught in the middle

"It was a few months after the war began. The Republic couldn't stop the droid attack. My husband was killed, our home — our whole village — was destroyed."

―Crys Taanzer^[4]

According to Crys Taanzer, a Human resident of Nadiem, by the time of the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the planet held little value for either of the opposing sides. Nevertheless, the Republic chose to defend Nadiem, which per Taanzer was the principal reason why the Confederacy launched an attack^[4]—which came to be known as the Battle of Nadiem^[7]—on the world^[4] in 22 BBY,^[8] five months into the conflict.^[5]

A Jedi Padawan takes Crys Taanzer's son Kennan aboard a Galactic Republic evacuation transport on Nadiem while a Ho'Din Jedi, consoling Taanzer, observes.

The fierce advance of the Confederacy's droid army forced^[4] Republic evacuation of Nadiem's settlements.^[3]^[4] Taanzer's village was destroyed, with^[4] her^[9] husband being killed. During the subsequent evacuation amid a pitched Republic defense effort, a Ho'Din healer of the Republic's Jedi Order and his Human Padawan learned that Taanzer's Human son, Kennan, possessed sensitivity to the Force. The Ho'Din Jedi offered to take Kennan in for Jedi training, which would allow him to designate the boy for priority evacuation and ensure his arrival on Coruscant,^[4] the Republic's Core Worlds capital planet,^[10] within the span of two days. The heartbroken Taanzer gave up her son, who was then taken by the Ho'Din's Padawan aboard a newly arrived Republic evacuation transport. Only moments after the craft's departure, the Republic positions were overrun by Confederate battle droids, causing everyone, including Taanzer, to flee, and leading to the demise of the Ho'Din Jedi, who attempted to ward off the droids.^[4]

Grievous's command

"On Vantos, Nadiem, and dozens of other worlds, Grievous slaughtered clone troopers and civilians alike, collecting lightsaber trophies from the Jedi Knights whom he beheaded."

―A Galactic Alliance historical document^[11]

General Grievous commanded a droid attack on a main settlement (pictured) on Nadiem.

Issuing orders from a command post located in territory on Nadiem under the Confederacy's control,^[3] the Kaleesh cyborg^[12] General Grievous sent the droid army to attack a main settlement, with the force marching through the Threadneedle Canyon on its approach. Meanwhile, a blockade set up by a Republic fleet led by General Saesee Tiin repelled the Confederate Fighter Wing Zero-Zero, thereby preventing it from providing air support to the droid army. Ultimately, the army engaged a Republic force based at the settlement and under the command of the Miraluka Jedi General Luminara Unduli. With the help of a squad of clone troopers led by Unduli's Miraluka Padawan Barriss Offee,^[3] the Republic force was able to defeat the droid army, liberating the local settlers.^[5]

Grievous subsequently moved to escape Nadiem in his personal starfighter, although Coway Jedi Master B'dard Tone and his Duinuogwuin Padawan Zephata'ru'tor^[12] first attempted to confront him on the far side of the planet from the Threadneedle Canyon battle.^[5] Grievous, however, killed Zephata'ru'tor in space above Nadiem during his escape and severely injured Tone, forcing the Coway to adopt cybernetic body part replacements.^[12] Nadiem had thus become one among a number of worlds where Grievous had slaughtered Republic clone troopers and civilians alike.^[11] The war eventually moved on to other worlds, with Nadiem and its surviving inhabitants being largely forgotten by the wider galaxy, and Taanzer eventually finding employment offworld^[4] as a pilot of the transport Uhumele.^[9]

After the war moved on

"The vessel is Corellian, en route to Nadiem, a smallish farming colony on the Rim."

―Raprice^[13]

In 20 BBY,^[14] Tone noted the losses he had suffered at Nadiem during a conversation with the Human Padawan Flynn Kybo.^[15] The following year,^[16] Taanzer similarly relayed her separation from Kennan on Nadiem to the Uhumule's Nosaurian crewmember Bomo Greenbark. Since she had learned^[4] approximately two months earlier^[16] of the supposed extermination of all Jedi, the pilot believed that her decision on Nadiem had only served to ensure her son's death—although, unbeknown to her, Kennan had, in fact, escaped the demise experienced by other Jedi and was still alive at the time of Taanzer and Greenbark's conversation.^[4]

One of three CR90 corvettes that Han Solo claimed to a Galactic Empire border patrol that he was using to transport goods to Nadiem.

The Human smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee partner Chewbacca underwent a venture^[13] in 2 BBY^[17] where they successively transported three virtually identical CR90 corvettes to Nal Hutta,^[13] a planet in Hutt Space,^[10] for sale to the Rebel Alliance.^[18] To the Galactic Empire's Carrack-class light cruiser Vigilant that encountered each of the corvettes while performing border patrol, Solo instead claimed that it was the same vessel, named Jaina's Light. Furthermore, according to Solo's story, farmers on Nadiem had loaned him the money to purchase the corvette in exchange for him making relatively small deliveries of grain, seeds, and other goods to their world.^[13]

Ultimately, it was only after Solo and Chewbacca's third run that it registered with the Vigilant's captain, Deyd Llnewe, that they had yet to encounter the corvette on its way to pick up its supposed cargo, with the captain thereby realizing the smugglers' ruse.^[13] Grievous' actions on Nadiem during the Clone Wars were later briefly mentioned in the 36 ABY galactic history chronicle by the Historical Council of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances.^[11]

Inhabitants

"But it was the farmers on Nadiem who loaned me the money to buy this ship… in exchange for my making these piddling little runs for them."

―Han Solo^[13]

Nadiem was inhabited by a colony of^[5] Galactic Basic Standard–speaking^[3] farming^[5] population that included Humans as well as members of other species, including at least one Ithorian. During the Clone Wars, at least two residents of a main settlement on the planet owned domesticated animals, respectively an eopi and a relatively large rat-like creature. In addition, an outdoor merchant's stall there was displaying a number of dead reddish-skinned, blue-eyed, green-tongued tetrapods.^[3] Nearly two decades later, after the smuggler Han Solo had falsely claimed to the Imperial cruiser Vigilant that he was transporting goods to Nadiem, the cruiser's Lieutenant Raprice characterized the world as a "smallish" colony to his captain.^[13]

Locations

"We've overtaken a group of refugees from one of the outlying settlements."

―An Advanced Recon Commando trooper, in a communication to Luminara Unduli^[3]

At one end, Nadiem's Threadneedle Canyon leveled out into a valley that housed a main settlement. The latter was bordered by a stream of water which ran in a perpendicular direction to the canyon and into which flowed the stream traversing the canyon. There were also a number of outlying settlements, including a village that was connected to the main settlement via a road leading through the Threadneedle Canyon.^[3]

Behind the scenes

Nadiem was first mentioned in "Routine," a comic story written by Tony Isabella and published in^[13] the January 5, 2000^[19] second issue of Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars Tales series of anthology comic-books.^[13] It then made its first full appearance in "Hide in Plain Sight," a comic story written by Welles Hartley, penciled by the Fillbach Brothers, and published by Dark Horse Comics^[3] on the Free Comic Book Day on July 3, 2004.^[20] The 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas placed the Nadiem system, and thereby Nadiem itself, in grid square U-11.^[2]