#blarina

Southern short-tailed shrew (Blarina carolinensis)

Rina Major was a planet located in the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories that was the homeworld of the Blarina species, whose name meant "children of Rin".

The Blarina Naka Iit began working as a scavenger on the planet Jakku around ten years after the Battle of Endor, and in the time made the acquaintance of Ohn Gos, another Blarina living on Jakku who worked as a merchant in Blowback Town. Twenty years into Iit's career he encounter the Resistance pilot Poe Dameron lost in the desert and agreed to take him to Blowback Town to try and arrange transport off world with Gos, who was generally more sympathetic to others. En route to the town, Iit and Dameron were attacked by the Strus clan, but the pilot managed to shake off the pursuers, earning Iit's gratitude. The Blarina agreed to interceded with Gos in thanks, and the two Blarina together managed to arrange Dameron transport off world, allowing him to return to the Resistance base on the planet D'Qar.

The hyperspace scout Wollivan was a Blarina with a large family, and due to their similar appearance, often claimed to be different members of his family to avoid trouble. Shortly after Iit and Gos helped Dameron, Wollivan was present in the castle of the pirate Maz Kanata when the smuggler Han Solo arrived looking for help getting the astromech droid BB-8 to the Resistance. After Solo's arrival, the occupants of the castle were drawn outside to witness the destruction of the Hosnian system by the First Order's Starkiller Base superweapon. The castle itself was then attacked and destroyed by the First Order. Wollivan wore a Blarina vac-suit while at the castle.

Amongst the most notable traits of the highly sociable Blarina species were their fondness for words and speech, which caused some members of the species to be quick with words. They were capable of speaking Galactic Basic Standard, and able to convey sarcasm, despair, delight and amusement through their tones when using the language. The species were also famously known for being accomplished liars, with at least one member of the species often lying about his identity in order to avoid trouble and take advantage of the problems other species had in identifying individual Blarina. They often hissed during speech and made a cackling hiss when delighted. The species were not especially known for their hospitality, although at least one member of the species was known to be particularly sympathetic to others, and another was willing to offer a stranger lost in the desert transport to civilization. Blarina would stick together when faced with species of larger size, often forming family-based guilds or mercantile associations.

The Blarina were a short, pudgy bipedal sentient species who were not especially strong, but made up for it by being incredibly quick, rugged and resourceful. With tough skin, they were capable of surviving in both high and low temperature extremes and through decompression, and were also resistant to poison and disease. Most other sentient species had trouble telling Blarina apart based on their appearance, with members having broad faces with short, wide snouts and a small pair of eyes, with slitted pupils. Below their snout, the Blarina had a mouth with more sharp teeth than a human mouth contained, including incisors. The species' skin was scaly and could be pink in color, while their eyes could have a golden hue. They had five fingered hands with claws at the end of each digit.

Blarinas age at the following stages:

1 - 11 Child

12 - 16 Young Adult

17 - 34 Adult

35 - 49 Middle Age

50 - 69 Old

Examples of Names: Daxxus, Ohn Gos, Naka Iit, Bev Plar, Wollivan.

Ants eating a northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda), an echolocating animal with neurotoxic, paralytic saliva. These shrews eat small things (seeds, worms, insects) like you’d expect but also rather large things (rabbits, birds, snakes) that should give you pause about how something so cute can be so venomous. This one was probably killed by one of my cats, but was left on the sidewalk because of the odor they emit … apparently a lot carnivores refuse to eat them. I blamed my cats for being wasteful at the time, but I feel bad for being so judgmental.