Medj'k'ai Nebula - Campaign Background

Along with other nebulae ridden backwater sectors, Medj'k'ai is almost forgotten by the rest of the galaxy. It contains a paucity of habitable planets, is well away from the major trade routes and contains few star systems. Most of those systems which are visible are difficult to approach: not only do the normal hazards of a drifting nebula have to be faced, but an long-dead anomaly within the region has left a number of black holes in the otherwise apparently clear regions within the nebula: astrogation charts are never up-to-date. Travel between the stars within the cluster is slow and difficult.

As a result of these travel difficulties, there are only two major systems in this small cluster, Losshaven and Keysh'kar, within a few parsecs of each other. A few minor and a number of barely inhabitable systems support some minor religious colonies or small and specialised industrial plants mines, though useful raw materials - even Tibanna Gas - are rare within the barely-formed, micro-meteoroid strewn nebula. Settlements, even on the major planets and in the major systems, are small. Trade and contact to and from outside the cluster is sporadic, at best - even the Holonet links with the rest of the galaxy are rarely functional due to the shifting nebulae. Trade within the cluster is small-scale, carried out by merchants and traders with small and medium-sized vessels, often held together by prayer as much as by technical competence.

But this makes the cluster an ideal haven for the deadbeats of the galaxy. Where else would they be left alone? The cluster is also used as a site for exiled nobles and leaders. Whilst some criminal elements are present, as anywhere where Republican interest and authority is slack, there is too little profit for the major criminal interests: most of such criminals are on the run. This means the area is occasionally the first call for Bounty Hunters chasing down minor criminals, but in general the cluster is too obvious an out-of-the hole to attract the more intelligent and capable criminals.

Whilst Luke Skywalker may have spoken of Tatooine as the backwater of the galaxy, it was only because he had never heard of the Medj'k'ai Cluster.

For a more precise location, the nebula is approximately on a line between Ossus and Kegan - see p 209 of the RCR.