#naboo culture

[smeraldo-heart]

Senator’s Ward AU

Reflecting- Compassion

Cal and Padmé take their very first holophoto, at the start of Cal’s mission to protect the Senator.

Calla Kann-Amidala makes his first appearance in the galaxy and Senator Padmé Amidala gains a family member.

Minific below, including my headcanon of Naboo culture- “mirroring”, imitating someone else’s appearance to show your admiration and respect for them.

‼️Minific:

“Senator Amidala?” Cal asked hesitantly, focused entirely on his face in the mirror.

“Call me Padmé, Cal.” Senator Amidala- no, Padmé- smiled gently from over where she was pinning up her elaborate hairpieces. “Is anything the matter?”

Cal had similar hairpieces too, ornate twisting ones that they had somehow got in his exact shade of red despite the short time constraints. A handmaiden was helping pin them in for him, having already done his makeup. That was what he was staring at right now, taken aback by the delicate scarlet staining his skin.

“No, Senator- I mean, Padmé,” Cal said, stumbling over the politeness he’d had drilled into him since childhood. Now he had to act like he was related to Padmé, and knew her quite well too. There was a lot to learn, and Cal wasn’t sure if he’d ever been a good liar.

“Just…why these?” Cal asked, gesturing to his face markings. As he jostled the handmaiden doing his hair, he grimaced apologetically, the other woman just shrugging it off cheerily.

“Hmm?” Padmé walked over to Cal and then hummed in realisation as she took in his face.

She was similarly made up, except her skin was completely covered over with white and she didn’t have the red lines over her eyes like Cal did. Padmé had mentioned something earlier about her makeup being reminiscent of when she was Queen, but Cal hadn’t quite been listening over where he was chewing his fingernails in anxiety.

Master Tapal would have been admonishing him for the habit right now, but he wasn’t here.

Cal’s Master still accompanied him, but they could only be Master and Padawan in secret. Their new missions didn’t allow for the openly broadcasted apprenticeship Jedi usually have, Master Tapal given the task of protecting the Senator overtly with a small guard of clones and Cal covertly using his psychometry to prevent any assassinations before they happened. That was why Cal was now currently Calla Kann-Amidala, not Kestis, the young cousin of Naboo Senator Padmé Amidala.

A Jedi who couldn’t be a Jedi, a Padawan without a braid, a secret in the Senate.

“Ah, your markings.” His new cousin sighed in realisation, beautifully painted lips pursing. “It’s customary in high Naboo culture to have symbols like this on your face.”

“Is there a meaning?” Cal asked, mystified by the red lines and dots panning his face. He didn’t have the white foundation the Senator had, the other having refused to have his impressing array of freckles covered up even for one holophoto.

“Not to the markings themselves necessarily, but to who they relate to.” Padmé pointed to her own face then, painted like a work of art. “It’s Naboo tradition to ‘mirror’ someone you respect in your appearance, to show your admiration for them.”

“That’s why you have the dots on your cheeks and line on your lip, like I do.” The Senator continued, pointing to Cal’s reflection. “The Council thought it best if we showed we were close to eachother in this way, to keep up appearances.”

Cal didn’t answer, still leant close to the mirror in inspection.

“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to have it.” Padmé frowned in concern at his quietness. “I’m sure we can do something different.”

“You said it means admiration?” Cal checked.

Padmé nodded, waiting patiently for Cal’s decision.

Even though he didn’t know the Senator very well yet, Cal could tell she was a woman worth admiring. He’d only ever heard tales of the once Queen of Naboo, as kind as she was fierce, and as fierce as she was dedicated. One of the Senators who strived most for peace, compassionate even to a child she’d barely just met, and she was to be Cal’s new “family.”

If Padmé wasn’t a person worth “mirroring” for, then who was?

Coming to a decision, Cal beamed at his reflection, the dots and lines pulling up and creasing in happiness.

“I’ll keep it.” Cal grinned. He liked the meaning.

Padmé smiled softly in return and held her hand out, waiting for Cal’s small hand to land in hers before they strode off together. They had a holophoto to take.

[duchessofthemoonartworks]

Queens Of Naboo [ 2023 ] My annual Star Wars day aka May the 4th picture. May The 4th Be With You!

More places to follow my art 🌙

Instagram @ duchess_of_the_moon_

Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/Duchesofthemoon

[archeo-starwars]

Star Wars Insider #85

[alexversenaberrie]

Young Queen Ameé

Ameé was was born on the Mid Rim Territories planet Naboo around 54 BBY. At 40-36 BBY, she served as the Queen of Naboo, which meant that she was 14 years old, when she started her term.

Princess Fanry of the Inner Rim planet Pijal, who was in similar age as the Naboo Queen, considered inviting Ameé and other young galactic leaders to her world for a summit. However, her lord regent Rael Averross rejected the idea.

Unfortunately, that is all what is known about the Queen.

On the painting she was presented in a costume of one of past Queens and has scars of remembrance on her face. Naboo royal crest behind her and on her dress represents her high status.

Queen Amidala | Queen Jamilia | Queen Neeyutnee | Queen Apailana | Sosha Soruna | Queen Réillata | Queen Mairayni | Queen Sanandrassa | Queen Kylantha | Sabé - The Decoy Queen | Queen Yram | Queen Dalné | The Gungan-Naboo War Queen of Naboo | Queen of Naboo from the New Republic | King Jafan I Star Tours Queen of Naboo | King Veruna | The First Queen of Naboo | King Tapalo | Queen Ameé | Queen Ekay | King Jafan III | The Queen of beaded emblems | King Narmlé | Queen of Naboo from High Republic | Queen Elsinoré den Tasia

#star wars paintings  |  SW Paintings

[nabooro]

Not sure if you're still actively working on this, but I am so enamoured with all of it! I wanted to ask - do you have any ideas about sign languages on Naboo?

Oh, thank you so much! I haven't been super actively working on this recently, but I'm always interested in thinking of new aspects of it!

I can't say I've developed any solid ideas on the sign languages of Naboo, but I have some thoughts on what they may be based in.

To start off on a slight tangent, I have some complicated thoughts re: disability in the GFFA, which gets a pretty weird treatment through the series in part because we have so many people with limbs chopped off lol. Obviously a galaxy with species with vast differences in mobility would need to have mobility and communication aids. So first I guess, is there technology that could act as a substitute for non-verbal forms of communication by 'interpreting'? Star Wars has all kinds of weird technology.

On the flip side: should there be? Both in terms of worldbuilding and in-universe.

That little tangent out of the way - I would say there is probably a primary school of sign language that has been developed intentionally over time and is fairly well-established, though I do wonder about its use and the politics of that - but I don't know enough about sign language myself to speak to its details.

Instead, what I can do you for: a couple of parallel developments in sign language (or equivalent) on Naboo!

One of the major resources in the south-west of Naboo, esp. in the swamps of the Danank region, involves a lot of mining that it is pretty dangerous to do things like "inhale" around. I imagine that mining communities there + people who just live in the vicinity of the swamps have developed their own sign languages.

The same I think may be true for the highly industrial sectors in Halân. Halân I think is one of the areas in Naboo which has a fairly distinct language (dialect, maybe) because of its relative remoteness, so this may reflect in its sign system as well.

And also in the more remote spaces of Arind, particularly in the forests that were known for their shrines and Shiraya followers who were on oaths of silence (either temporary or permanent), I think they would have developed fairly elaborate communication systems involving their fans and staffs (which form a significant part of the material aspect of their faith), which probably survives in somewhat relic-ised form in religious performance and so on.

Hope this was kind of what you were looking for, and thank you for the interesting question!

[stljedi]

[katurdayss]

Another shower thought. Did Padme Amidala have a regnal name? Or was she just known as The Queen of Naboo (with no name)? Cuz if she didn't have one and she was known as Queen Padme Amidala of Naboo how the F did no one suspect a handmaiden with the same name as her around the same age? Also how did no one recognize her from her campaign for the throne? You can't tell me she had the same level wardrobe. Today's politicians look very different on the campaign trail vs sitting in office.

[galactic-rhea]

the handmaidens + padmé group can't be be this super wholesome group of besties that share make up and gossips and giggle as they make out ocassionally, they can't be always this cool and badass girlpower considering the fucked up way they are on this situation. Considering each of them is actually A Person that's different from Padmé, as much as they trained themselves to mentally replicate all her moves, considering that they're ready to die for her (but she won't for them, she can't, she's too important, as much as it pains her) I can't not think of this as a awfully unbalanced group of people that got forced to become friends and develop weird and intense feelings for each other but also a deep resentment and extreme passive-agressiveness because at the end of the day, they're Padmé's subordinates and there's no way Padmé doesn't, inherently and unconsciously (and sometimes consciously) step into a Boss role, there's no way Padmé, sometimes, doesn't realize the disagreements or drama that might be going on, and if she does there's...well, lots of awkwardness they're forced to overcome. She probably will obliviously hurt them, and they won't retaliate because that's their boss. Sure, there's a window of honestity that goes beyond the professional, but it only make things harder and messier. And them there's probably lots of talking behind backs, and little cliques and mini groups, not to even touch on the dating or romantic feelings, that probably just makes the drama skyrocket.

And still, they're a very close group of Friends (perhaps more for some of them), but more intimate than normal friends and at the same time less intimate than real friends because real friends become honest and intimate as a choice and as a natural relationship developing, and definitely not as healthy and honest as any normal friends. And do you think that keeps them awake? They're look-alikes, trained to copy Padmé's mannerisms and behaviour, and clothes, everything, and they all together created Queen Amidala as a facade, and yet there's still that feeling of lack of actual íntimacy, a feeling of a lack of actual friendship, like the itch isn't really satisfied in between them because as much as they care for each other, there's a feeling of fakeness into it all, a feeling of 'what brough us together is just a job, and what keeps us together is that we don't know something different'. But some of the handmaidens do leave and adventure away from this, and there IS happy moments and real kinship at times... is just that, the uglyness isn't not very far from the surface.

[secretly-a-catamount]

Trying to write fanfic for star wars is hard, because what do you mean the only cultural thing that the wiki has listed for Naboo that they have clothing?? what do you mean??

[sinswearslaughter]

PLEASE fellow Star Wars headcannons enjoyers - I encourage more of us to create entire cultures and build worlds when creating fan fiction or fan arts. But how can we do that? I have a few ideas :

- seemingly nonsense traditions

Did you know that inhabitants of Naboo jump every time they hear a frog? Nonsense, right? Well, it is a very old and out-dated way to greet somebody amongst the Gungans. Back in the day some people struggled distinguishing between the sounds of their neighbours and some of the planet's animals...

- traditions that do not align with the wide-spread moral code

Perhaps on some planet similar to Tatooine we had space-Hitler that is now celebrated as a national hero? We don't agree with those views but let's be realistic - if there are so many different cultures, systems and species then some of them are probably hateful too.

- create stereotypes/misconceptions that are widely spread.

Maybe some people on Tatooine believe all Toydarians to be cheap assholes. Perhaps some Rebellion members who weren't there on Endor are convinced Ewoks are miniscule, like, we are talking 10 cm tall.

- write metaphors which refer to characters' cultures.

Act like half of the Galaxy is attempting to translate their whole cultures into language.

Make characters from Tatooine use phrases such as something being "cheap as a legless slave" or something unbelievable happening "when the Hutts fly".

If your world is complex enough (and if you're freaky like that) you can even show character development (values shift, adaptation of different culture's language) through changes in that specialazed language.

Make your worlds alive. Make sure they not only suck the audience in - they will devour us.

[ashiraashiraashira]

@howdidthisevenhappenanyway

[thelesbianthespianposts]

Luke skywalker would not perform Nabooian rituals

Leia Organa would not perform Nabooian rituals

neither of them were born on naboo. Neither of them were raised with Nabooian culture. Why is it so hard to see people representing their upbringing as it was.

Show Luke making a recipe he learned from Beru, or Leia knowing a lot about alderaanian history. Something like that

[duchessofthemoonartworks]

Queens Of Naboo [ 2023 ] From left to right. Queen Amidala, Queen Neeyutnee, Queen Jamillia & Queen Apailana. More places to follow my art 🌙

Instagram @ duchess_of_the_moon_

Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/Duchesofthemoon

[vodkamademedoit]

Who's that Pokémon?

It's Naboolian Gothitelle!

(yep! I checked that! It's Naboolian... It's a real word. The more you know. ..lol)

[alexversenaberrie]

The First Queen of Naboo (Legends)

A female of the Human species was anointed the first Queen of Naboo more than three millennia before the Invasion of Naboo in 32 BBY. She was one of the Human colonists who had fled a civil war on the Core World of Grizmallt and established a new civilization on the planet Naboo, a green haven located on the borders of the Outer Rim Territories. On the painting, we can see settlers on the left as they land in a Naboo-Like ships. Also, behind the Queen we can see a tapestry with a solar system indicating that she was an explorer.

While her people was engaged in bloody conflict with the native Gungans, that woman was chosen to lead the colonists, who took the name of their new homeworld and became known as "the Naboo." Although she accepted both the title and the function of Queen, that woman refused to be the founder of a hereditary succession line. (It is symbolized by a broken crest with symbol of a tree on the right.) Instead, the newly elected Queen decreed that her successor would be selected based on their merits only. This started a tradition of meritocratic democracy on Naboo, which would still be used millennia later. However, the constitution of Naboo had a provision that allowed the monarchy to become hereditary for a worthy dynasty, and this happened at least once in history.

Unfortunately, not many information about the Queen survived to our times. We do not know her name or how she looked like. The artist decided to choose for her a simpler costume in shape and tone, similar which was wore by Naboo Senators, to mark that Naboo just starts to build their rich civilisation. The Lady also has a travelling bag indicating that she was a colonist.

On Queen's head we can see a Naboo crest headdress and a Naboo royal crest on the red curtain, underlining the importance of the lady. She indeed was the first ruler of Naboo.

Queen Amidala | Queen Jamilia | Queen Neeyutnee | Queen Apailana | Sosha Soruna | Queen Réillata | Queen Mairayni | Queen Sanandrassa | Queen Kylantha | Sabé - The Decoy Queen | Queen Yram | Queen Dalné | The Gungan-Naboo War Queen of Naboo | Queen of Naboo from the New Republic | King Jafan I Star Tours Queen of Naboo | King Veruna | The First Queen of Naboo | King Tapalo | Queen Ameé | Queen Ekay | King Jafan III | The Queen of beaded emblems | King Narmlé | Queen of Naboo from High Republic | Queen Elsinoré den Tasia

#star wars paintings  |  SW Paintings

[alintalzin]

Beautiful.

"truly, deeply," or, depth and Naboo's core

In English, and a number of other languages, we understand depth as a good thing. Depth is understood as complexity and profundity: to dive deep is to look for great detail, to feel deeply is to have strength of feeling, deep colours are highly saturated, depth of thought is something having much significance.

Naboo the planet differs from most rocky planets in that it apparently has a hollow core populated with sea monsters. Our understanding of the sea, the ocean, the core and depth are fundamentally different to that of the Naboo, because for them the primary association with the deep is that of being eaten by giant sea monsters (bodré).

So, onto the concept of depth. The primary association in Nabooro with depth is the idea of danger. Depth is complex, but it is not profound: it's more like the metaphor of a black well. What lies in the deep is darkness and hunger and probably also certain depth. "To dive" at all is to do something dangerous; "to dive deep" is to risk death. To do anything "deeply" is to do it with an element of danger, which is also understood as despite the possible consequence, or accepting of the danger involved.

Of course, that isn't to say Nabooro doesn't have a word to convey the sense of profundity or sense of from-the-heart that is conveyed in the English "deeply." They do, and it would be translated into English as "deep" or "profound" because of linguistic redundancy, though what it actually means is "rooted."

So the question is: when Padmé says she truly, deeply loves Anakin, which one is it that she means? I don't think somebody who has grown up speaking and learning in Nabooro would translate carelessly into Basic, because there would be a discomfort with the concept of depth even when she speaks in Basic — it's easy to learn a new vocabulary, and far more difficult to unlearn the metaphors that are implied below the language.

I think, considering their conversations about how they can't allow themselves to fall in love ("it would ruin our lives,") it's the literal understanding of deeply in Nabooro. But I also think that this is meant to be understood as having come from her heart.

Following what I assume is the intended meaning, she would say, in Nabooro: "Né dé folcan. Oshinéfe. Saméfe." [I love you. Truly. Profoundly.]

Done with a more literal sense of "deeply" in Nabooro, and in context, she might be saying: "Né dé folcan. Oshinéfe. Tânshife." [I love you. Truly. Dangerously.]

But my personal preference gets rid of the 'truly' entirely, at least in the semiotic sense of being correct or honest, instead replacing it with the sense of profundity — she loves him from her roots, i.e. from the heart of her, from her truth — and maintaining the sense of danger and acceptance of risk in the 'deeply', giving us: "Né dé folcan. Saméfe. Tânshife."

That is: I love you, from my roots, and from my hollow core. I love you, from the part of me that holds me in place, and the part of me that prepares me to fall. That is, put in Basic: I truly, deeply, love you.