The Argazdans, who possessed green skin, were a near-Human species. Their origin traces back to the planet Argazda, situated within the Kanz sector. This species evolved from a group of standard Humans who established a colony on Argazda during the early epochs of the Galactic Republic. These colonists carried with them the Vianist faith, which they subsequently propagated among the other indigenous species of the region. The Argazdans gained notoriety throughout the galaxy due to their secession from the Republic, an act spearheaded by Governor Myrial. The actions perpetrated by Myrial's adherents—the Myrialites—at a time when the Jedi Knights and the Galactic Republic were heavily engaged in other conflicts, triggered the Kanz Disorders in 3970 BBY. These Disorders spanned 300 years, during which the Argazdans subjected their neighboring populations to slavery, established an independent navy, and transformed the Kanz sector into a dictatorial regime known as the Argazdan Redoubt. Their dominion over the area resulted in significant transformations; for example, Argazdan slaveholders prohibited enslaved Human inhabitants of the planet Lorrd from communicating verbally, leading the Lorrdians to develop a non-verbal form of kinetic communication as compensation. Concurrently, the Argazdans sought assistance from an alien scientist who had appeared within the Redoubt. Under her direction, the Argazdans commanded enslaved Lorrdians to construct the Slave Pits of Lorrd, a massive structure designed to house a biological superweapon. This project was brought to an end when Jedi Knights, led by the Lorrdian Jedi Mari-Elan Nora, launched an assault on the Argazdan Redoubt, reclaiming it for the Republic.
Despite the fact that, many millennia later, the Argazdans had come to perceive the Kanz Disorders as a stain on their history, outsiders continued to largely regard them as both cowardly and self-serving by the era of the Galactic Civil War. At least one member of this species, Doctor Raygar, an academic and scientist, displayed no qualms about donning the attire of an Argazdan slave lord, even in the presence of members of formerly enslaved species, such as the Lorrdians. Raygar gained a reputation within scholarly circles as an eccentric seeker of artifacts he believed to be imbued with power. One such quest involved searching for the weapon concealed within the Slave Pits of Lorrd, while another saw him pursuing the Sunstar held by the Ewoks of Bright Tree Village on the Forest Moon of the planet Endor.
As a sentient species that originated from baseline Humans, Argazdans shared numerous characteristics with their genetic ancestors. Each member of the species possessed a humanoid form, featuring two arms and legs, a torso, and a head. The Argazdan face included two ears, two eyes, a nose, and a mouth equipped with Human-like dentition and a tongue; these features were capable of expressing emotions in a manner similar to Humans. They possessed five fingers on each hand. However, an Argazdan was differed from his or her forebears due to the species' striking white head hair, prominent facial bones, deep-set temples, light green or yellow-green skin, and yellow eyes. When an Argazdan exhibited bags under his or her eyes, the affected skin darkened to a greenish tint.
In the initial years following their integration into the broader galaxy, the Argazdans were characterized by a strong tendency towards conservatism. They held the culture of the Galactic Republic in disdain, viewing it as morally objectionable. From their earliest days, many members of the species practiced a religion known as Vianism, which revered the goddess Via, whose name simply translated to "goddess" in the native Argazdan.
However, following Myrial's purge of Republic loyalists from the Kanz sector and her declaration of independence for the sector as the Argazdan Redoubt, the species quickly became renowned throughout their territory as unrepentant slavers. During the period known as the Kanz Disorders, the Argazdans possessed technology comparable to that of the rest of the galaxy, including droids and heavy machinery. Nevertheless, they primarily employed non-lethal weapons, such as whips, to control the enslaved populations. One such invention was the Argazdan riot buster, a ranged weapon designed to knock down and stun its target without causing further harm. The species also maintained a major weapon within the Slave Pits of Lorrd during this era. Argazdan architecture from the Kanz Disorders predominantly utilized black stone as its primary construction material. Some Argazdan slavers wore black suits, featuring a tailed jacket, shirt, pants, and boots. Argazdan slave lords donned a black body suit, complete with a partial red cape, tall, curved shoulder guards, and a tight-fitting hood with a pointed crest.
The Kanz Disorders severely damaged the Argazdans' reputation, leading to their long-standing perception as cowardly and opportunistic within the wider galaxy. By the time of the Galactic Civil War, however, most Argazdans felt remorse regarding their species' role in the Kanz Disorders. They had reconciled with at least one of the species they had previously subjugated, the Lorrdians, with members of both species coexisting on the planet Lorrd. Nevertheless, at least one Argazdan, an academic known as Doctor Raygar, openly wore the attire of an Argazdan lord in public on Lorrd without any apparent hesitation. Other Argazdans on the planet were deeply offended by his attire, with some even spitting on him due to his choice of clothing.
In addition to their native language, Argazdans were capable of learning Basic and at least one language spoken on the Forest Moon of Endor.
The Argazdans descended from Human settlers originating from the Core Worlds who colonized the planet Argazda during the early years of the Galactic Republic. After establishing themselves on the cool, wooded world, the settlers lost contact with the Core and developed independently. They evolved into a distinct species, characterized by green skin, white hair, and a distinctive facial structure. The Argazdan language evolved with them.
These colonists maintained some knowledge of space travel, enabling them to establish contact with neighboring species and cultures. The Argazdans brought with them the religion of Vianism, and their missionaries converted members of neighboring groups, including the Sipsk'ud species and the Lorrdian Humans.
Argazda re-established contact with the rest of the galaxy at some point between 5,000 and 4200 BBY. Circa 4,200 BBY, the Argazdans had come under threat from a species known as the Ereesi, who were intent on enslaving the green-skinned humanoids. Argazda lay beyond the borders of the Galactic Republic at the time, so the Argazdans petitioned the galactic government to admit them as a member world and thus permit Republic forces to protect them from the Ereesi threat. Although the planet was located far from any stable trade route, the Galactic Senate overcame its misgivings and voted to admit Argazda and its neighboring region as the Kanz sector and thus to bring the area under Republic protection. Republic forces voyaged to the newly admitted territory and battled the Ereesi on the Argazdans' behalf, but the encounter with the allies from outside the region shocked and dismayed the Argazdans, who found their visitors heinous and immoral. Still, the Republic abated the threat posed by the Ereesi and turned military operations over to the Argazdans once the species was deemed capable of handling the conflict on their own.
The war brought the Kanz sector and the Argazdan homeworld within the confines of the known galaxy. The world eventually became a stop on the Veragi Trade Route. Argazda became part of a larger region known as the New Territories.
Myrial, the female Argazdan who was serving as the provisional governor of Argazda, carefully cultivated her power base in the region over several years: she weeded out opponents in the sector fleet and established a spy network. In 4000 BBY, Myrial felt the time was ripe, so she ordered Argazdan supporters of the Republic killed in mass executions and around 3970 BBY declared the independence of the Kanz sector, which she renamed the Argazdan Redoubt, with her as the dictator. The beleaguered Republic, facing a new threat in the form of the Mandalorians, was embroiled in the Mandalorian Wars. With the Jedi Knights and Republic occupied by the conflict, Myrial quickly established an Argazdan battle fleet, which she dispatched to Ereesus. There, the fleet's weaponry scoured the surface of the planet and destroyed all life on the Ereesi homeworld. The event marked the beginning of a period of turmoil that would come to be called the Kanz Disorders.
Myrial's followers became known as Myrialites. Over the next three centuries, the Myrialites transformed the Redoubt into a site of constant conflict and destruction as they dropped bombs on recalcitrant worlds and enslaved rebellious groups to serve as laborers for Argazdan colonists to their worlds or else for sale on the slave market. Pleas by the Argazdans' victims to the Republic went unheeded as the galactic government struggled to survive its own travails.
When a resistance movement began on the planet Amaltanna, the inhabitants of a neighboring planet, Lorrd, joined forces with them to resist Argazdan expansionism. In retaliation, Myrial ordered Lorrd bombarded with ordnance and the Lorrdian species enslaved. The Argazdan attack damaged major cities, such as Frezen and New Shallos. Argazdan warriors landed on Lorrd and carried out the order. The Argazdan forces tracked Lorrdian refugees to Kinyov province, where they were rounded up to be enslaved, with some destined for sale offworld. The Argazdans established their Lorrdian headquarters in a small Kinyov city known as Qatamer. Soon, Argazdan slave lords were commanding Lorrdian slaves in such tasks as constructing fortresses from black stone from which their masters could govern the world. The Argazdans found non-lethal weapons to be a prized commodity, including the Argazdan riot buster.
The Argazdans faced the Sisterhood of the Glorious Radiance, a sect of the Vianism religion, which had attracted Force-sensitives to its fold. The Myrialites forbade the enslaved Lorrdians to speak to one another, but the Sisters of the Glorious Radiance began teaching non-Force-sensitive Lorrdians to read body language and gesture so as to permit secret communication. The Sisters' status as members of the Vianist religion, widespread among the Argazdans as well, sheltered them from Argazdan reprisals, although the green-skinned species suspected complicity between the Sisterhood and local resistance movements. Eventually, Myrial ordered the Sisters relocated to Lorrd II, the planet's moon, a move that isolated the Sisters from the rest of the Lorrdian population. Near the end of the Mandalorian Wars, the Argazdans faced an early incursion by the Jedi Knights when the rogue Jedi Revanchists raided the moon and liberated the slaves there to gain access to Lorrdian gemstones, which were useful as lightsaber crystals.
Although Argazdan slavery of Lorrdians continued on Lorrd proper, by the time of the Sisters' relocation, the spread of kinetic communication and the reading of subtle body language had become widespread among the enslaved Lorrdians. Unbeknownst to the Argazdans, the Lorrdians learned to decipher their masters' body language, facial expressions, and vocal inflections, an ability that allowed the Lorrdians to endure their subjugation. Meanwhile, the Argazdans faced a Lorrdian guerrilla movement that consisted of several divisions that could communicate with one another and organize strikes silently without the Argazdans' notice. Meanwhile, other conflicts erupted in the greater galaxy that further preoccupied the Republic, such as a G0-T0 droid revolt in the Gordian Reach in 3946 BBY.
Nearly 300 years after the declaration of the Argazdan Redoubt's independence, Argazdan patrols discovered an alien artisan and scientist who had arrived in the area after an experimental star drive had blasted her there. When Argazdan scientists revived the alien from stasis, linguists tried unsuccessfully to learn her language. Nevertheless, she learned the Argazdan tongue. The outsider was in reality a Yuuzhan Vong shaper, but to the Argazdans, she was a demonic alien and habensa, the Argazdan word for "one who builds" or "one who shapes." In a bid to maintain his power in the face of growing opposition from the Galactic Republic, the Argazdan Regent, Torphceris, struck a deal with the habensa: he ordered the Lorrdians to begin work on their planet on a construction project that became known as the Slave Pits of Lorrd. Despite the availability of heavy machinery on the planet, the stranger forbade the Argazdans to use advanced technology in the pits' construction. Instead, the Argazdans commanded the Lorrdians to dig the pits out by hand, harsh conditions that killed thousands of Lorrdians. Within the bowels of the site, the Argazdans sheltered a major weapon, a bioengineered monster hidden behind a hefty door that opened only upon the commission of a Human sacrifice.
Ultimately, however, the Argazdans proved unable to overcome the guerrilla resistance offered by the Lorrdians, which helped usher in the end of Argazdan domination on the world and in the Argazdan Redoubt more broadly. By 3670 BBY, five billion sentients had died in the Kanz Disorders. That year, the Jedi Order had sufficiently recovered from its losses in the Mandalorian Wars and moved to stem the violence in the former Kanz sector. Despite the Republic's continued engagement with another war against the Sith, the Jedi had enough support in the Galactic Senate for military intervention. The Lorrdian Jedi Knight Mari-Elan Nora led a joint Jedi and Republic task force to liberate the Kanz Sector. During the assault, Nora claimed that she witnessed Argazdan soldiers fleeing into the bowels of the Slave Pits of Lorrd, chased by Jedi; nevertheless, none who entered ever re-emerged. Despite dogged resistance from the Argazdans, the Jedi and Republic forces triumphed. The Argazdans and the Argazdan Redoubt—renamed the Kanz sector—were placed under the protection of Nora as the region's Jedi Watchman until she was killed by slavers on the planet Noremac.
The turmoil convinced the Republic to be far more careful about admitting far-flung worlds to join the government. The Republic also became reluctant to send more colonists to the Kanz sector. The Kanz Disorders remained well known in the galaxy for millennia. The events served as a rallying point for both advocates of a more interventionist central galactic government and a more conservative government that did not extend its borders beyond its own means to protect them.
The Argazdan homeworld featured in later conflicts as well. During the Clone Wars, Argazda allied with the Confederacy of Independent Systems. By the time of the Imperial Period, the events of the Kanz Disorders were a legend not only among the Argazdans but in the galaxy at large. The strange alien for whom the Slave Pits had been built took on the status of a myth, a demon with whom the Argazdans had made a deal during the conflicts. Most Argazdans regarded their ancestors' actions in the Kanz Disorders as shameful, and the species eventually re-established positive ties with the Lorrdians. The Lorrdian playwright Pordi zet Chatc wrote the tragedy Torphceris about the final ruler of the Argazdan Redoubt and his diabolical deal with a demon, who demanded the Slave Pits be built to focus her dark energies and offered Torphceris mystical powers in return.
In 4 ABY, Argazda fell within territory of Oversector Outer controlled by Grand Moff Ardus Kaine. By 7 ABY and into 11 ABY, it was allied with the Galactic Empire. From 12 to 17 ABY, the system fell within the Imperial Remnant. Circa 25 ABY, the Argazda system had a population between 100 and 500 million. It had fallen into Roan Fel's Empire-in-Exile by 137 ABY.
For thousands of years, the Argazdans had a presence across the galaxy. Before the Kanz Disorders erupted, Argazdan missionaries actively propagated the Vianist faith among neighboring groups, including the Lorrdians and the Sipsk'ud. Doctor Raygar, a pro-Imperial Argazdan archaeologist, stood apart from his species' typical aversion to their Imperial history. As a participant in projects like the Wolhanian expedition to Yavin Prime, this scientist traversed the galaxy. However, his academic funding ceased when he became obsessed with excavating ancient artifacts rumored to possess mystical abilities. In 0 ABY, Raygar spearheaded the excavation of the Slave Pits of Lorrd. Despite the friendly relations between the Argazdans and Lorrdians, his insistence on wearing the attire of an Argazdan slave master sparked outrage from both groups. Raygar's real objective remained concealed: to unearth the ancient weapon given to the Argazdans by the ancient myth's "demon" and present it to Emperor Palpatine. During a tense encounter with the Human children Tash and Zak Arranda, who had trailed Raygar into the Slave Pits' depths, the scholar asserted that a Human sacrifice was essential to access the weapon. Consequently, he murdered his Imperial contact, Facet Anamor. This death appeared to awaken an ancient entity. Frightened, Raygar and the children escaped, but only after the scientist detonated a thermal detonator, destroying the site.
In 3 ABY, Raygar's fixation on potent artifacts led him to the Endor system, where he sought a gemstone known as the Sunstar. He located the artifact in Bright Tree Village, an Ewok settlement on the Forest Moon of Endor, where he stole it from its Ewok guardian, the shaman Logray. Aboard his Imperial Star Destroyer, Raygar concluded that the Sunstar's power would enable him to overthrow Palpatine and seize control of the galaxy. He engineered a cannon fueled by the artifact, creating his personal superweapon. However, a team of Ewoks, commanded by Wicket W. Warrick, infiltrated the starship to retrieve the Sunstar. Amidst the chaos, Raygar's cannon accidentally targeted Palpatine's approaching shuttle. Admiral Kazz, the Human in charge of the Star Destroyer, apprehended Raygar and delivered him to the Emperor for punishment.
The Argazdans unite two streams of Star Wars continuity that originate from the franchise's earliest days. The species' significant involvement in the Kanz Disorders is reminiscent of the 1979 novel Han Solo's Revenge, the second book in The Han Solo Adventures series penned by Brian Daley and released by Del Rey. In this narrative, the Corellian smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca, collaborate with the Lorrdian executive Hart-and-Parn Gorra-Fiolla. Daley mentions the Lorrdians' past enslavement by unnamed masters in relation to Fiolla. The 1993 sourcebook Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook, authored by Michael Allen Horne for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game by West End Games, elaborates on the Kanz Disorders and identifies the Argazdans as the Lorrdians' captors. However, the book does not imply that the name refers to a species.
Doctor Raygar, a humanoid scientist featured in "Battle for the Sunstar," represents another strand of continuity connected to the Argazdans. This episode of the Ewoks television show, "Battle," initially aired on December 6, 1986, during the show's second season. Nevertheless, this episode, written by Paul Dini and directed by Raymond Jafelice, offers limited insight into the academic's background.
Two 2009 sources unite elements from Han Solo's Revenge and Ewoks: The Essential Atlas, written by Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace and published by Del Rey, and "Death in the Slave Pits of Lorrd," written by Adrick Tolliver and published on the Hyperspace website. As both projects were being developed concurrently, Fry and Tolliver exchanged notes on the Kanz Disorders, the Argazdans' role, and the species' physical characteristics. Fry conceived the Myrialites and the Disorders' connection to the Mandalorian Wars, while Tolliver had the idea to link the species to Doctor Raygar from Ewoks. An illustration by Chris Trevas in the Atlas portrays green-skinned Argazdan slavers and their Lorrdian slaves.