Destruction of Zhell

The destruction of Zhell was a legendary event described in the ancient epic poem Dha Werda Verda. The poem gave an account of a long war fought around 200,000 BBY on the planet Notron between the Taung species and the Battalions of Zhell, which were formed by nations of the potentially ancestral Human culture known as the Zhell. The ninth chapter of the Dha Werda Verda described Taung warriors preparing to face the Zhell in combat on the following day, with the former assembling at the location referred to as the "high place" that overlooked the capital of the latter, known as Great Zhell. Per the Dha Werda Verda, on the morning of the next day, after the Zhell had been briefly frightened by the appearance of the Taungs at the high place, a sudden volcanic eruption destroyed Great Zhell and created a high plume of black ash that filled Notron's skies for two years.

According to the poem, both the Taungs and the Zhell were nearly rendered extinct by the event. The Taungs, who subsequently were claimed to have subjugated the surviving Zhell, named themselves the Dha Werda Verda, or "Warriors of the Shadow," in recognition of the ash making them appear as emerging from shadows, and they eventually celebrated their victory by composing the poem Dha Werda Verda. Nevertheless, the Zhell were claimed to have eventually recovered from their loss and driven the Taungs off Notron. Hundreds of millennia after the events described in the poem had supposedly taken place, academics had difficulties ascertaining the historicity of the destruction of Zhell, although the Ice Crypts of Notron—by that point known as Coruscant—were theorized to indeed contain archaeological evidence connected to that event. Meanwhile, by the time of the Clone Wars, the Dha Werda Verda had went on to become an important element of the culture of Coruscant's Human-dominated population.

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