Tusken Raiders
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Tuskenraider.jpg Tusken Raiders (or Sand People) are fictional creatures in the Star Wars saga. They live on the planet of Tatooine. They killed Anakin Skywalker's mother Shmi Skywalker in Attack of the Clones and attacked Anakin's son Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: A New Hope. They also briefly appeared during the pod race in The Phantom Menace. In Return of the Jedi, one of Jabba the Hutt's guards was an unmasked Tusken Raider. This Tusken Raider was seen fighting against Lando Calrissian.
Contents |
History and origins
In the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Tusken Raiders are said to be an ancient race, who at one point possessed advanced technology. They lived on the planet of Tatooine when the planet had oceans and lush jungles, and were a major power in the known universe. However, the creators of the Star Forge, the Rakata, conquered the Tuskens, and mined their planet exhaustively. After a virulent disease weakened the Rakata, the Sand People saw the opportunity to strike against them: they sabotaged the Rakata's fleet, but, in retaliation, the Rakata bombarded the planet and Tatooine became a desert world. The Tusken race survived by hiding in a system of artificial caverns carved by the archaic Tusken race, but they were trapped and isolated on the planet. Once the "Builders" (the Rakata) lost power, the Tuskens abandoned most technologies, and poisoned their natural resources to prevent other species from having an interest in their planet and conquering it. However, the planet was conquered many times over the following millennia, though the conquerors frequently left it after a short period of time due to the atomic instability of the metals in the planet. The Sand People are known to be easily frightened, but then return in greater numbers.
The Tuskens' precise bodily shape is unknown, since they cover themselves completely with clothes. Tusken Raiders only remove their clothes on their wedding night or in their own dwelling. Doing otherwise warrants execution or banishment, depending on the tribe. Their language sounds to most like a series of incomprehensible roars, and few can understand it, even on Tatooine; one of the few who could understand it was the assassin droid HK-47, who had the language pre-programmed into his memory by Darth Revan, his master.
In Knights of the Old Republic, it is implied that Tusken Raiders were the original humans. This would explain why humans seem to be spread out across the Star Wars universe, as they were the most commonly used slave race of the Rakata. While so, some sources claim this is not official canon. Other sources, such as starwars.com, claim the Tusken Raiders are descendants of the Ghorfas, a society that built caves within the cliffs of Tatooine. Their civilization collapsed when off-world settlers disrupted their water supply, leading to their current nomadic existence. It is also discovered that, because only the richest and most ignorant of Tatooine's environment were taken captive by the Rakata, the Sand People think that outsiders coming to their planet are their long-lost ancestors, returning to destroy Tatooine's environment. They also appeared in both Star Wars: Battlefront and Star Wars: Battlefront II.
Weapons
The primary weapon of the Tusken Raider is a durable metal club called a Gaderffi, known as a "Gaffi stick" to non-Raiders. The Gaderffi is crafted from both Krayt Dragon horns and/or salvaged scrap metal. In ranged combat, however, Tusken raiders are known to use old projectile rifles. During battle, Tusken Raiders are known to "spit" blood from nasal ducts and channel it into the metal tubes below their mask's eye sockets.
Transportation
The Tusken Raiders' preferred means of transportation is the bantha, which plays an important role in Tusken culture and religion. When a Tusken receives a bantha, they form a life-long bond; when one of the two dies, the other is exiled to the desert to die. In A New Hope, Obi-wan Kenobi notes that Tusken Raiders always ride single-file to hide their numbers.
Expanded Universe
According to Expanded Universe sources, Tusken Raiders are named after Fort Tusken, an early Old Republic mining settlement in which all of the settlers were overwhelmed and captured or killed by Tusken Raiders, then referred to as Sand People. The attack probably occurred due to the forts placement over one of the Raider's holy wells.
Exiled Jedi Sharad Hett and his son A'Sharad Hett, whom he trained in the ways of the Jedi, lived among the Tusken Raiders for many years. Hett was one of the few non-Tuskens to be accepted into the ranks of the Tusken Raiders, and was even given the title of Warlord. Although A'Sharad Hett believed he was half-Tusken for the better part of his young life, during his training on Coruscant he learned that humans and Tusken Raiders were genetically unable to reproduce, leading him to believe that his mother must have been a human, captured by the Tusken Raiders at a young age and raised as a Tusken.
In the Junior Jedi Knights and New Jedi Order series, it was revealed that Jedi Knight Tahiri Veila was raised by the Tusken Raiders after they captured her in a raid.es:Tusken fr:Tuskens ja:タスケン・レイダー fi:Hiekkakansa