#sws speculation

Hi!! Im really glad you like how i draw togruta bc oh my god i have spent... so much time drawing togruta. I’ve drawn some things out for you, but i didn’t have access to digital media at the time. I hope ink and paper drawings are ok :’) disclaimer: none of this is necessarily canon, but it IS based on a significant amount of study and observation of Shaak Ti’s makeup (which i consider to be the base source of canon togruta appearance).

Anyway, drawing Togruta with Jaymes, Part 1: Montrals

As with anything you need to start with the basemost shapes!

[Labeling says “All montrals we’ve seen are fundamentally conical”]

Basically the main thing to help with constructing montrals is that no matter what shape they are (if you’re going for technically canon compliant! If you want to choose a different shape, GO FOR IT! 😊) they really just amount to squashed and stretched and twisted symmetrical cones that errupt from the skull and make up a base part of it. We don’t know if the montrals have their own separate compartment inside of them, but we do know that (at least in legends) theyre hollow.

[Labeling says in the first “bottom of the montral flows into the cheekbone” and in the second “This part of of the skull is slightly visible on the surface, as seen in shaak ti’s makeup” with an arrow ponting to the temple region of the skull, which is pronounced]

I’M PUTTING THIS UNDER A CUT NOW BC I REALIZE ITS VERY LONG

Full view so you can read it here!

Speculative twilek anatomy, anybody? This is about ythe skull specifically, the part of star wars races that tends to be most interesting and human divergent. Inspired by the wonderful work of @spacelingart

More notes:

-Lek Roots vary in terms of length and placement. Hera has very long and outward pointing lek roots, whereas Oola and Lyn have thick short roots that point back.

-it’s also possible that the levels of fat deposit on the crest as well as root angle/placement might be correlated with twilek ethnicity! Oola and Hera might be green, but it might be that Oola and Lyn are from the same twilek “race”, so are Lunae and Aayla, and then Hera is some third one. 

-I see literally no reason that male twileks would never have high set lekku, or that a female would have low set lekku.

I was gonna write more but I’m tired! And I wanna post this. I think next I might do togruta skulls and lekku/Montrals or some stuff on zygerrians next :) 

All of my straw wars species speculation will be tagged as “sws speculation” if you wanna see more!

In case my handwriting is hard to read:

@dreaming-of-the-unknown​ asked,

.... because I found out they have two hearts and a ridiculously good pain tolerance, but nothing else, like bruh you can't just throw out that they have two hearts and leave it at that.

Oh i most certainly do!!!

What is the most consistent feature of Zabrak? The most striking even? What do all zabrak have, regardless of culture, birthplace, or creed? Their tattoos.

Now, the question is... why?

Its easy to say that its culture, but we’re talking about extensive body modification beyond what, say, the pantorans or mirialans do.

And not just extensive tattooing in a single culture (which, yes, DOES happen) but it is across the galaxy something that, as far as we know, all Zabrak do to some extent. Even the nightsisters do it and, even more damningly, Asajj Ventress, who was raised away from her culture, still has tattoos.

The tattoos are more ubiquitous than their horns. So again, we should be asking why. There are numerous possible explanations, but personally? I suggest that it has to do with the living force.

The Living Force is the form of the force that inhabits and surrounds all living things. As Obi Wan said in A New Hope,

“It surrounds us, and penetrates us...”

There’s also a line from Yoda that supports what I’m about to propose as the reason for these tattoos in E1S1 of The Clone Wars.

“In the force, very different each one of you are.”

So here’s my theory: The Living Force bunches and swirls around a living thing, a unique pattern to each one that’s ever changing but always the same, and as a species Zabrak are uniquely attuned to this, even individuals that aren’t force sensitive. 

There’s a compulsion to trace and mark on one’s skin the pattern of the force, and normally the strongest patterns are the ones marked first. It’s not uncommon for Zabrak to get these marks tattooed first, and most are generally satisfied after that, but many others feel the drive to get each and every one marked. 

Two groups of zabrak are especially attuned to their own force pattern and the patterns of others: Tattoo artists and healers. Healers because the force pattern can, to some degree, indicate trauma or damage and be manipulated to ease pain or manipulate the body in other ways. Tattoo artists for hopefully obvious reasons. 

Tattoo artists in particular spend years honing their craft, drawing the force pattern of any living thing they can get their hands on to practice before moving to ink because every last Zabrak tattoo is done completely freehand and only guided by the force. The best Zabrak tattoo artists have over a hundred years of experience, and most would consider their craft never perfected. It drives them insane when they see “Zabrak Tattoos” done by non-zabrak artists because they never actually line up with the individual’s force pattern and they’re basically the star wars equivalent of shitty 90’s tribal tattoos that desperately need coverups. 

It’s possible to train to actually see the force patterns, and this absolutely can be done by any force sensitive individual, but it’s much easier for Zabrak to do and is usually only actively learned by Zabrak healers. Tattoo artists go by feel, and Jedi only really need to feel the way each individual is unique. Zabrak Healers learn because, by using their eyes, they can actually often make an accurate diagnosis for an internal problem just by looking at the outside of a patient. However, even for force sensitive healers, it’s still kind of a pain in the ass to learn. That said, many long lived force users, such as Master Yoda, sort of have a tendency to pick it up after a few centuries. 

And another note, those who see the force patterns will often describe them as looking like the reflections of a pool of water on a ceiling, with the dimension of the auroras. 

Oh thats easy, Togruta’s lekku are a part of their ears!

Or at least the front two are anyway. I personally believe that the ancestors of togruta were much smaller, and their lekku were thinner. When they would hunt, their lekku would trail on the ground, sending information about nearby prey or predator movement in the soil up to their montrals, kinda like how a worm can feel vibrations in the earth to tell them what’s nearby. I imagine that the lekku stripes could also change color slightly to alert any of the ancestor’s hunting party. Since the back, fattiest lekku is likely the one a hunting party member would be looking at, that’s where the color changing is most pronounced. As this ancestor became larger and more social, having more and more complex societies, the lekku became less of a listening device and more of a social aid. The color changing communication system became more pronounced and nuanced. It isn’t a togruta’s cheeks that blush, its their lekku! Often times non-togruta don’t know to look for this, which many of them are thankful for lmao

It’s more presentation than anything that I’ve thought about, but basically here’s my thoughts? I thought about what I know about butch culture which, admittedly, isn’t a massive amount, and sort of worked using that to wonder “how would twi’lek sexual dimorphism evolve into twi’lek specific gnc culture? And how would femme culture evolve based around embracing woman centric femininity?”

Personally my guess for Zabrak horns is that unlike antlers (which are basically controlled bone cancer, it seems) their Horns are probably some form of bone core covered in a continuously growing keratin sheath that needs to be shaved down every so often!