Lit Pathetic Lifeforms: The Anthropology and Exobiology Thread!

Inspired by the fact that the Geology and Palaeontology thread got distracted by a conversation on the origins of the Tuskens, I decided to give the many sentient species of the Galaxy their own discussion thread. Frankly I'm surprised their wasn't one already - everyone watches Star Wars for the aliens, right?

As an opening conversation, well, I've been looking through the sourcebooks for the FFG game recently and it's struck me that their sections on playable species do A LOT to humanize (a word no doubt very offensive an a Galaxy of millions of sentient species but it's the best I could do) species generally depicted as antagonists in various media, such as Hutts and Neimoidians. It stresses they they aren't all douchebags; it's not even completely true that their cultures encourage being a douchebag. It's just that these species have the bad luck to have the douchebags be their most famous members are the douchebags. Think about how, in real life, virtually any conversation about Germany will inevitably bring up the Nazi years... even though modern Germany is a more stable, thriving democracy than the modern US.

I love, in particular, what FFG did with the Muuns in particular. It's long been stated that the Muuns collaborated with the Empire, and the Empire largely left the Muuns alone because they're vital to the Galactic economy. Per FFG, though, that's only true from a certain point of view. Turns out the arrangement was less "You can keep on as normal" and more "You BETTER keep on as normal or we're busting skulls." Bam. Craven collaborators become tragic unsung victims in a way that actually makes sense.

Excited for Alien Archive to give us the dirt on TCW and post-reboot species that have little biological or cultural information, too!

 

The Silika...they get hammered off of mineral water....

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Silika

 

The fact that in the new continuity, the sarlacc, rathtar, vixus, and blixus all share a common ancestry is rather interesting, especially given I think each of them has an established separate homeworld for one another. It gives rise to the question of just where that common ancestor was, and how (presumably) members of that species got spread to other worlds long enough ago for evolution to differentiate them. Possibly the billion-year old Goroth civilization mentioned in the paleontology thread?

 

Maybe though I didn't take that civilization as Galaxy spanning.

Why for in universe reasons are humanoids so common? Is there an ancient humanoid equivalent a la Star Trek or is it just convergent evolution?

 

I love the existence of reptomammals and reptavians because it posits a universe where avian dinosaurs and "mammal-like reptiles" continued to diversify and expand without taking on the characteristics of modern mammals or birds.

 

There are some "mixed up" aliens whose origins are even more baffling, too, like the Tognath, who seem halfway between mammals and insects somehow.

 

And then we have things like -Mnngal-Mnngal which seem to not fit into the standard category.

 

Don't forget the weird and interesting polymorphic species - the Filar-Nitzan (probably the weirdest one), the Clawdites, and (my personal favorite), the Shi'Ido

 

It makes sense that a lot of creatures wouldn't fit into categories we'd recognize on Earth. In fact, it's weird so many do.

 

I've actually always felt that real-life alien searches were over-limiting themselves by concentrating on Earth-like planets and conditions.

 

Even on "Earth-like" planet, though, it's still a completely independent evolutionary history, and even life that arises convergently wouldn't *be* the same categories of lifeforms as we hav on Earth.

 

BTW, does Resistance have any answers on the whole issue of sexes in Crolutes? Since there's what looks distinctly like a lady Crolute there.

 

I think the story of endemic versus invasive species would be an interesting one in a galaxy that developed spacefaring early on. Suppose, for instance, the Goroth or another early race brought baby Sarlaacs with them as they colonized new worlds. Planted a perimeter of these sessile protectors to keep native predators out of their villages. Millions of years later, adaptive pressures from a new environmemt favor non-sessile versions, and eventually you end up with rathtars. Oops. We humans have done this kind of thing over and over, with only one planet's ecosystems to remix badly.

 

Cool. My thread started a trend.

 

The Gree and/or the Kwa, with their wacky teleportation gates, might also be likely suspects for who spread the sarlacc species complex around.

 

The truly baffling part to me is that the RO Visual Dictionary says they're related to both Kel Dor and Gand. Not only is the former mammals while the later is insects, not only do the Tognaths not really look like either of them, but they don't even breathe the same gases. Gand either don't breathe at all, or they breathe ammonia. For Kel Dor, in Legends at least they breathed helium and a made up gas from their home planet. (I'll admit I've always been confused wether their masks had some gas stored in them, or if they just filtered the deadly oxygen out of the "normal" air as they breathed it in).

Out of universe, I think it was a lazy attempt to try to link some of the species that don't breathe oxygen. (I can buy that for the sake of the plot, most planets in Star Wars have air similar to that on Earth, but to me it stretches credibility that the aliens who buck this trend all just happen to be related to each other). In universe, maybe we could justify it with genetic engineering to get settlers prepped to colonize worlds?

 

And the Arcona get high on salt.

Given that salt is so common that we humans (the most common Star Wars species) actually produce some when we sweat, one wonders how Arcona deal with a society where a controlled substance is basically not controllable. I know there's been mention of machines in Cantinas that make sure alien species don't get served beverages that are deadly poison, but I'd imagine there are a lot of lawsuits in the GFFA.

 

On a related note, I remember in the first Black Fleet book, when the Yevethan delegation lands on Coruscant, one of the officials says something like, "Looks like they're related to the Twi'leks." Did that guy live on Coruscant his whole life and never see a Twi'lek? Or did K-Mac just not have a visual sense of what he was writing about?

And speaking about Twi'leks, I remember in I, Jedi, Corran goes to a Twi'lek restaurant where they serve mynock meat. I don't know what carbon-based life would like to eat silicon-based life....

 

If I can take a stab at this: we are more closely related to insects that live on our planet than we would be to a sapient mammal that evolved independently on another planet. Maybe their distant ancestors evolutionary ancestors hail from the same world?

 

It just hit me that in addition to the Tuskens, we don't know what the Frog-dogs call themselves, either. That's the only name they've ever been given, because they apparently enjoy being seen as mere animals for... reasons.

 

Has their been any depiction of a race of "beings composed of pure energy" in Legends or Canon?

 

Not the show itself, but Aunt Z's been confirmed as a member of the all-female Gilliand species (race? subspecies?) in Women of the Galaxy and elsewhere.

 

Three Legends examples (one iffy) I can think of at the moment:

Diathim / the Angels of Iego; sentient species; details from Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds:

"All Angels seem to be composed of searing white light tinged with a yellowish aura, making it difficult to identify biological details." ... "six-winged, luminous beings"
"Diathim do not speak and do not appear to feed on anything."​

I'm not sure how much of this has been carried over to the Canon version of the Diathim.

Starweirds; of undefined sentience; details from Ultimate Adversaries:

"Species traits: Incorporeal: A starweird's body is visible but incorporeal." ... "when a starweird dies, it leaves no trace of itself behind."
"It is only encountered in deep space, apparently existing in a vacuum without injury."
"Some Jedi believe that starweirds are physical manifestations of the dark side of the Force, although little evidence supports this claim."​

This is the iffy example; "incorporeal" may not necessarily mean "composed of pure energy". I'm including them because (a) they're one of my favorite SW species/creature designs and I want to talk about them, dagnabbit; and (b) they can physically harm corporeal beings, so they can apply a real force and transfer energy somehow:

"attacks foes physically with its claws" ... "Determined Strike: A starweird deals additional damage by sheer force of personality. It applies its Charisma modifier (+1) to damage dealt by its claw attacks."​

Bogeys; non-sentient creatures that can pass through solid rock; details from Fate of the Jedi: Outcast:

"swirling ball of luminescence" ... "sparkly balls of light"
"I don't think it's alive. I can't detect it in the Force as life, just as energy. Energy and intent."​

 

Awesome. Thanks!!!

 

Since we now have an exobiology thread, does anyone have any idea why the Hutts went from hermaphrodites in Legends to having separate sexes in canon?