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| Within a year after beginning the construction of the Valneikian spire, the Geonosians had made great progress in constructing a multitude of factories and production facilities. There was easily enough room for the hive to live in comfort and for their future repopulation plans. While the Archduke always keeps his priorities open for whatever the leaders of Plagueis may request of the hive, their current efforts in construction continue unabated. | | Within a year after beginning the construction of the Valneikian spire, the Geonosians had made great progress in constructing a multitude of factories and production facilities. There was easily enough room for the hive to live in comfort and for their future repopulation plans. While the Archduke always keeps his priorities open for whatever the leaders of Plagueis may request of the hive, their current efforts in construction continue unabated. |
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| | In late 38 ABY, the spire came under attack by a [[starwars:Killik|Killik]] invasion force. The attack was part of a coordinated assault orchestrated by the [[Phantom Assembly]] and would result in serious damage to much of the spire’s structures and infrastructure. The invasion was thwarted with the additional support of Plagueian reinforcements, and the spire remained mostly intact, allowing its inhabitants to begin the rebuilding process. While the construction drones are taking an effort to restore the lost parts of the spire to their previous state, a careful eye can discern the old structure from the new, serving as a reminder of the battle that took place. |
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| ==Geography== | | ==Geography== |
The Valneikian spire is the home of the Valneikian hive, the last bastion of Geonosians in the galaxy. It is located on Aliso.
History
When the Valneikian hive awoke from their stasis on the planet Aliso in 35 ABY, they instantly came into conflict with Clan Plagueis of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. After a bloody battle, Selika Roh, then the Dread Lord of Clan Plagueis, made an arrangement with the hive. In exchange for Plagueis allowing the last of the Geonosians to remain alive and rebuild their hive, the Valneikian hive would have to serve Plagueis for the rest of their existence. Not having many other options, Queen Duzhannu agreed to the terms. As part of the deal, Clan Plagueis helped the Valneikian hive scout out a new location to build their hive, as their original home under Aliso City was off limits to them.
After weeks of searching, the hive and the Clan were able to agree upon the current location of the spire. The Valneikian hive wasted little time in tunnelling into the mountains to establish their new home. With some supplies and resources graciously traded to them by Clan Plagueis, they carved out the spire through tireless non-stop work. They constructed the central spire first, which became their center of operations. Queen Duzhannu moved into her chambers and mostly shut herself off from management, choosing to focus on repopulating the hive. An aristocrat named Krullok was raised to the position of Archduke and took up overseeing the continued construction and expansion of the spire.
Within a year after beginning the construction of the Valneikian spire, the Geonosians had made great progress in constructing a multitude of factories and production facilities. There was easily enough room for the hive to live in comfort and for their future repopulation plans. While the Archduke always keeps his priorities open for whatever the leaders of Plagueis may request of the hive, their current efforts in construction continue unabated.
In late 38 ABY, the spire came under attack by a Killik invasion force. The attack was part of a coordinated assault orchestrated by the Phantom Assembly and would result in serious damage to much of the spire’s structures and infrastructure. The invasion was thwarted with the additional support of Plagueian reinforcements, and the spire remained mostly intact, allowing its inhabitants to begin the rebuilding process. While the construction drones are taking an effort to restore the lost parts of the spire to their previous state, a careful eye can discern the old structure from the new, serving as a reminder of the battle that took place.
Geography
The Valneikian spire is located on Aliso’s southern continent roughly 300 kilometers southwest of Aliso City. It has been constructed within a coastal mountain range that borders the ocean. The presence and bulk of the mountains has allowed the network of canyons and valleys that lie on the leeward side of the range to remain relatively dry and arid. As the land stretches out beyond the shadow of the mountain, it becomes typical Alisoan plains. The climate is warm enough to cause minimal discomfort to the denizens of the spire. While occasional storms, wind, and rain buffet the oceanside slopes of the range, the inland side manages to stay dry, temperate, and undisturbed.
Structure
“Valneikian spire” refers to both the entire settlement as a whole as well as the central, largest spire that serves as the nerve center for the hive. In total, however, there are six different spires that comprise the settlement, all of varying shapes and sizes. While these spires are about a kilometer high on average, the bulk of the interior actually consists of tunnels that have been dug into the mountains and canyons that make up the range. These tunnels are a complex, interconnected network that are filled with many different kinds of facilities.
Due to the speed at which the Geonosians needed to construct the spire and the lack of resources that would have typically been on their home planet, the Valneikian spire is composed of a unique mixture of materials. The various stone and minerals found among the mountain range as well as a fair amount of durasteel, duracrete, and plasteel have all been blended to create a rather unsightly locale. The hive, however, is not overly concerned with the aesthetic of their home, only its utility. To this day it is still being built up, expanded, and refined according to the hive’s needs.
Notable Locations
While there are a multitude of distinct districts and locations within the Valneikian spire itself, these few are some of the most relevant and important to the hive overall.
Queen’s Chambers
The Queen’s Chambers is where the Geonosian Queen Duzhannu spends all of her time. It is a large, spacious room. It has a domed ceiling that is nearly nine meters high, and is circular in shape with a diameter roughly twenty-five meters across. There is a large bed-like structure for the Queen to recline on and sparse decorations lining the perimeter of the room. Most of these decorations or relics from Geonosis that the hive has managed to hold onto or newly constructed pieces that are reflections of Geonosian culture. There are a few side-tunnels that connect this chamber to various other rooms, such as a nursery, a kitchen, and a waste disposal tunnel. The Chamber is located near the middle of the central Valneikian spire and is inaccessible from the outside without drilling through layers of duracrete, rock, and durasteel. It is also always guarded by the Queen’s honor guard of picadors.
Command Center
The Command Center is located near the top of the central Valneikian spire. It is a large domed, circular room roughly four meters high and thirty meters in diameter. The middle of the room is occupied by a large, circular conference table with ten chairs around it. Along the perimeter of the room is a multitude of computers and holobanks that are used for everything from keeping track of the hive’s construction projects to projecting holovids. There is a small side-room that serves as the Archduke’s office and is able to be sealed off for privacy. Some banners and iconography is hung or drawn around the room that bear emblems celebrating the Dark Jedi Brotherhood and Clan Plagueis. This room is always abuzz with activity as aristocrats and the occasional picador hurry to and fro taking care of some kind of business.
The Command Center is where visitors from the Clan or the Dark Jedi Brotherhood as a whole would be welcomed to. For this purpose, it has a tunnel that leads directly out onto a landing platform that hangs off of the side of the spire. This landing platform is large enough to accommodate only a few large freighters, however. In the tunnel between the landing platform and the Command Center, there is a small rest area reserved for special visitors. Some comfortable seating, a bar, and a holo-projector would usually be staffed by an aristocrat who is ordered to keep the visitors as happy as possible.
The Ichtuzz Arena
While there are a few smaller, more makeshift arenas throughout the spire, the Ichtuzz Arena is the largest and most popular. It was built at the base of the central Valneikian spire early on in construction and has remained the Archduke’s choice for hive-sponsored activities. The Arena is one of the few open-air structures of the spire, sitting in a small crevice between two tall mountains. It is a large circular arena, with a combat floor close to fifty meters in diamater and seating enough for tens of thousands. The Geonosians have ground up stone to create sand that makes up the combat floor.
The Ichtuzz Arena is used for the rare public executions of dissidents, the occasional celebration, or, most often, gladiatorial combat. This sport is extremely popular among Geonosians and one of their primary forms of entertainment, so there is rarely a day when the Ichtuzz Arena is empty. Archduke Krullok has made it a point to invite prominent members of Clan Plagueis whenever there is a major event happening in the Arena, but he rarely visits himself.
Factory District
The Factory District is actually quite a large section of the spire, occupying miles of tunnels and two entire spires. While exactly what kind of factories you can find there varies greatly, there are certain sub-areas within the district that specialize in certain types of production, such as droids or durasteel. The Factory District is extremely crowded at all times of the day and night not just because of the hundreds of thousands of Geonosians that can be found there at any given time but also due to the sheer scope of their production efforts. Factories are rarely gated off into separate buildings, instead simply stretching into long lines of various machines and workers. To the unfamiliar, it might even seem to be one giant factory spread over kilometers of tunnels and towers. The Factory District is also one of the most dangerous places in the spire, however, as the Geonosians care little about safety precautions.
Populace
- Main article: Valneikian hive
The Valneikian hive is the current resident as well as the entity responsible for constructing the Valneikian spire, along with some assistance from Clan Plagueis of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. While they do their best to retain what culture remains from their home planet, adapting to this new home hasn’t been the easiest ordeal. Their current priority is the preservation of their species, as they believe themselves to be the last remaining hive of Geonosians in the galaxy. They serve Clan Plagueis loyally under threat of possible genocide and are on relatively good terms with the clan.