{ STAR WARS AU }
Taza and his tribe are native to Batuu, their homes deep within the forests in the Surabat River Valley where they protect ruins there from the likes of Oga Garra and others who wish to acquire the treasures and artifacts of their ancestors.
Indeed, if you place any belief in their legends, they are a people descended from the Ancients. They dwell among the trees, near the river, and they live under the stars and walk beneath the Spires. They live simply, carrying on many of the customs and beliefs of their ancestors.
Unfortunately, living simply is not always so easily done, and it comes at a high price. In desperate need of a means to protect themselves and the credits necessary to secure such protection, Taza and his people took up smuggling spice. It isn’t something of which he’s proud to have partaken, and it was never his intention but when your people are vulnerable and suffering, sometimes sacrifices must be made.
Another regrettable circumstance to come of this is that Taza came to work with a rather vicious consortium of smugglers and drug runners who called themselves The Commission. They were blackguards and cutthroats, but there were no other options. The unspoken leader of the Commission, Pecas, took advantage of Taza’s dislike for the business and his general refusal to argue over the details of it, underpaying him for the work done and shorting him at times, finding reasons to excuse it as having been necessary.
So much as Taza hated it, there was nothing else to be done. His people needed the income brought in by the spice business, as restoring and selling speeders of questionable origin was not properly supporting them as Batuu had become more and more isolated.
It was during this time that he crossed paths with Teresa Mendoza and James Valdez. He knew their names, though he had never paid them much attention beyond occasionally hearing the tales of their exploits. There didn’t seem to be a point in doing so as they operated in another sector.
Until they didn’t. After striking a deal with The Commission, there followed an unfortunate series of events, wherein Pecas betrayed Teresa to her enemies, and upon her return, Teresa convinced Taza to work with her instead. Together, Taza and his Tribe and Teresa and her people overthrew the rest of the Commission and took over the spice business in the sector.
This time, Taza was given much better terms, and the promise that Teresa would buy him out his part of the business in time at a rate that would easily support his people for the foreseeable future. When the time came, he was all too happy to accept her more than generous offer.
Also during this time as a smuggler for them, he met the Pirate turned Smuggler Hondo Ohnaka. While the two were not instant friends, they did grow to be so and when Taza retired from the business, it wasn’t long before Hondo––supposedly––did as well, and Taza was not displeased when the old Weequay settled on Batuu within Black Spire Outpost.
With the opening of Ohnaka Transport Solutions, commerce and travel began to return to Batuu, and with it, Taza’s people were once more able to properly operate the speeder shop at the Outpost, selling speeders at a reasonable price to the Locals and an astronomical one to the Offworlders.
Life seemed to return once more to what they had always known.
And then the First Order came…
