Are there other worlds like Nar Shadda in the SW EU?

[SW_display_name]

So Nar Shadda is kind of the de-facto Las Vegas / slummy, scummy, crime-laden den of hedonism & iniquity of the SW EU.

 

But really, in a galaxy this big there's got to be other similar havens for unregulated crime and vice, right?

 

Does anyone know of other worlds that are similar to Nar Shadda in the EU? It's getting kind of repetitive setting every 'street urchin' or 'petty criminal' or ... etc... backstory on Nar Shadda.

 

Like Coruscant is good, because it's got a huge sprawling cityscape with lots of poverty, crime, and slums hiding under the shine where naughty things can happen. But Coruscant is off-limits to a lot of backstories because it's right in the core heart of the Republic.

 

Similarly Taris was good, but kind of blew up and collapsed into a toxic festering wasteheap, so is also not really useful anymore.

 

Worlds like that. It seems like there should be a lot of them, but it's hard to "search" eg, the Wiki for stuff like this because the concept is so vague.

 

And most planets in SW EU are very "theme park"-feeling instead — Dantooine is farms and prairies, Balmorra is ... dirt, Tatooine is sand, Hoth & Ilum are ice, Mustafar & Oricon are lava, Dac & Manaan are water, Belsavis is a prison, Alderaan is mountains and castles, Quesh is gatorade, Taris is sewage, etc.

 

I guess I'm looking for other worlds that are big and "civilized" enough to plausibly hold wide stratifications of economy, culture, architecture, etc the way Nar Shadda, Coruscant, Taris do or did.

[October]

5/nvm Edited June 5, 2014 by October

[errant_knight]

Those are the only world cities that I can think of offhand, but my sw knowledge comes from Kotor not the EU so There may be others. I would imagine you could find plenty of corruption and underground economy on most republic worlds, though, even smaller ones. ie Alderan, Onderan. In the empire, not so much. Lack of crime is the one upside of brutal military rule, lol. And litter really isn't an issue. Edited June 6, 2014 by errant_knight

[Sangiban]

I suppose a close one would be Nal Hutta, but it's the planet Nar Shaddaa orbits and as Atton said, "

." So I'm not sure if Nal Hutta counts. What about Bonadan and Muunilist? They aren't necessarily city-planets, but they are (as far as I know) corporate worlds and full of corruption and dirty-deals that have large cities on them. You are right that there aren't that many worlds like Nar Shaddaa, which one would think in a galaxy as enormous as Star Wars' there would be more. Edited June 6, 2014 by Sangiban

[Darth_Wicked]

Sleyheron, I guess?

[Danylia]

I was having a similar dilemma with my character, and eventually made her come from Axxila.

[septembersphinx]

There's a list of known EU ecumenopoleis here. Some of those would probably provide what you're looking for, although a couple (Gerrenthum, Vorzyd V, not sure which else) weren't developed in the old Republic era. Humbarine is probably too clean. Karideph and Skakoa are implied to be largely native inhabited. At initial glance through, maybe Metellos or Denon?

 

Kuat might also be worth considering. While it's "theme parky" in terms of ship construction, there's bound to be an underworld side to it, and I think some of the crew skill missions allude to this. Corulag is known for swoop racing, and has a bunch of legitimate development, with hints at seedy sides as well.

 

Several planets and moons in Hutt Space are probably similar to Nar Shadaa, particularly ones near trade routes like Nal Koska, Nal Yeshu, and Nar Chunna.

 

You might find it interesting to look through some of the places mentioned repeatedly in crew skill missions that don't show up elsewhere in the game, or only in flashpoints. Tion Hegemony comes to mind.

 

Does any of that help?

Edited June 6, 2014 by septembersphinx

[Karkais]

Although not a world per se, there is the wheel. Also not part of the old republic era, but that was not asked for ^^

[Lithy]

The Zeltron homeworld, Zeltros. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Zeltros Edited June 6, 2014 by Lithy

[SW_display_name]

Hey, thanks guys, lots of good leads in here.

 

• Bonadan & Munilist are big & sprawling, but they don't quite have that "anyone could be wandering through here, for any reason" feeling. They're more like the kind of "dirty" you find on Wall Street.
  
• Sleheyron isn't bad, actually, but it doesn't quite have that "anything goes here, everyone passes through here" feeling of Nar Shadda; from what little info I could find on the wiki, it's more of an industrial/export giant.
  
• Axxila is awesome, even though info about is sparse. That's the kind of thing I was looking for. The only downside is the name makes me imagine armpits.
  
• Gerrenthum, also great, right along the lines of 'big diverse city'.
  
• Vorzyd V, not so much... too happy and perky.
  
• Humbarine is yeah, too 'businesslike', it wouldn't have quite the same traffic as a general Las Vegas / Los Angeles / NYC / London / etc etc type planet.
  
• Karideph is too biological and natural, but does sound pretty.
  
• Metellos is great, the only problem is it's another Core World type that rules out Republic-unfriendlies wandering through it.
  
• Denon's not bad, although its Inner Rim location and history of fierce Republic protection makes it a little sketchy... but who knows when you consider the War and the Treaty.
  
• Kuat, yeah, it's just that 'industrial' thing again, probably shady but less reason for random people to just wander through it.
  
• Corulag is also good, except it's smack in the heart of the Core.
  
• Zeltros is good, but it's just too... happy. And well, turgid. It's hard to imagine serious poverty, crime, or suffering there.
  
• The Wheel is awesome and would be my #1 choice, but even my 'creative' interpretations of lore can't quite push the timeline envelope that far.
  

 

Just kind of musing 'aloud' there, not complaining. Even the planets that aren't useful here are great to learn about — I'm sure they'll be useful sooner or later. This is the biggest problem with the EU — there's so much cool stuff that it's possible to never know about, even if you're reading the wiki constantly.

 

I think I might actually go with Vorzyd V — the theme and location actually work pretty well the more I think about it. I'll just exploit "Legends" to fudge things a bit. Let's see, just add a few zeroes and we can turn this...

Around 39 BBY, the people of Vorzyd V began to build the casinos and amusement parks for which their world would later become famous.

into this...

Around 3900 BBY, the people of Vorzyd V began to build the casinos and amusement parks for which their world would later become famous.

... and then we'll make up some story for why their economy failed during the Republic Dark Age when the rampaging Sith tribes smashed everything, and it took about 1000 years to really recover and go back to their roots as an entertainment world.

 

Then I'll just Hail Mary the God of Retcons and... done.

 

Splendid!

[Neltronluur]

Atzerri and the planet Carratos both have high crime rates but Atzerri has both a Nar Shaddaa back drop and a rural setting as well.

[Karkais]

The Wheel is awesome and would be my #1 choice, but even my 'creative' interpretations of lore can't quite push the timeline envelope that far.

 

Well there is another possibility in SWTOR for your "den of iniquity" needs:

(may contain spoilers about the smuggler storyline)

 

Port Nowhere, which is special location in the smuggler storyline. Its not as luxurious as Nar Shaddaa's or Wheels casinos, it is more like a secret port off the starmaps (and which moves around), a gathering place for smugglers, pirates, gamblers and all manner of the scum of the universe. Smugglers storyline contact there is a gambler so there is also some gambling going on in there.

 

Edited June 8, 2014 by Karkais

[ThaadJarvis]

Hi I've been with Star Wars since x-wing vs tie fighter and almost every game lucasarts developed and I can fill u in on some lore. Firstly u have separate the Star Wars galaxy into its 3 zones in the way EvE online has it's "security" zones if your familiar ..basically the closer u get to the core the more police eyes are on you. So empire or republic battle for control, red vs blu, communism vs democracy bla bla ..but neither of them care what's happening in the outer rim bc more than likely if the galaxy spit u out there it's most likely your fault and you won't last long at all in the way we don't go to Somalia for vacation.

Nar Shaddaa is the hub of several Hutt solar systems that is a neutral zone between Hutt clans, gangs, militias, etc. The way hutts developed kingdoms is by sc****** up the scum that got spit out of the core worlds and any benefits they brought with them ex: han's ship is a godsend to a Hutt organization getting contraband into the core and out with its over clocked hyperdrive. In order for them to take their pick of criminals in such a vast expanse of the outer ring is to have 1 main hub that is notorious to all so that any and every creature trying to make money or fame will know already that their best opportunities will likely originate from that very moon.

There are plenty of places in our world to find gambling, drugs, sex, dirty money, weapons, and a hitman but everyone knows Las Vegas is famous for it without question. Hope this answers your post

[ThaadJarvis]

Edit- that blanked word in my previous post is scr- a- ping or scray-ping lol