Planet Name: Mon Calamri
System Name: Calamari
Sector: Xappyh
Terrain: Oceans and small islands
Zones: Surface to Water terminals, Space Dock

Seen from space, the planet Mon Calamari appears as a tranquil deep blue orb with few landmasses. Despite the inherently peaceful nature of the native species that shares its name with the world, the endless oceans have been stained by bloody war on many occasions.

Two aquatic species have struggled for dominance on Mon Calamari for ages. Though the conflict has subsided in the face of greater external threats, neither the Mon Calamari nor the Quarren will ever forget the violence that has marred their histories.

The Mon Calamari developed as coastal dwellers, living comfortably in both the water and on the surface. The Quarren lived in the depths, only surfacing on rare occasions and with great difficulty. The Mon Calamari developed culturally and technologically while the Quarren trailed behind as primitive savages. Contact between the two species was sporadic, and almost always violent. The aggressive Quarren grew to hate their strange world-mates, and would strike from the depths repeatedly. The more advanced Mon Calamari had the means to deflect such strikes time and again, but could not determine how to make the Quarren stop.

Thus, centuries ago, the Mon Calamari embarked on a bold and controversial experiment. They abducted a generation of Quarren children from their parents, and raised them instead. They uprooted the primitive Quarren society, and attempted to civilize the people from the deep. It worked, after a fashion. The new generations of Quarren did not seek to make war with their neighbors, but since those days, many have always harbored resentment against their more sophisticated cousins.

The newfound cooperation between the Mon Cals and the Quarren proved to be a boon to the planet. The Quarren were skilled miners, drawing precious ores from the ocean floors. The Mon Calamari were able starshipwrights, building majestic vessels to ply the local spacelanes in exploration. The Mon Cals were dreamers, with their heads in the stars. The Quarren were pragmatists, with their heads deep below the oceans. Though a small number of Quarren undertook a few scattered colonial ventures to get away from the oceans, the species as a whole had no interest in joining the galaxy at large.

When the Republic discovered Mon Calamari, it was the Commerce Guild that took the most interest. The mineral assets of the planet were most attractive, and the Guild insinuated itself into the local government. The Calamari Council soon became staffed by Guild-appointees, all of them Quarren mining barons made exceedingly wealthy by graft from the Commerce Guild. With the Quarren basically in charge of the planet, they put a chokehold on the burgeoning Mon Calamari space program, enacting a policy of isolationism that kept the planet in interstellar stagnation for decades.

The outbreak of the Clone Wars split the planet into civil war. The corrupt Quarren, Senator Tikkes, sought to bring his world into the Separatist fold, but he was censured before he could do so. A loyalist Senator, Tundra Dowmeia, was installed in his wake, but he could not keep Separatist-sympathies quiet among the Quarren. A radical movement, the Quarren Isolation League, sought to rid the oceans of any Republic presence. The local Mon Calamari Knights took up arms to stop them. Coruscant answered by sending General Kit Fisto to help the Knights, and together, they were able to bring Mon Calamari back into the Republic fold.