#togorian

The poll decreed that the majority wanted to see some feline-based star wars character designs, so here's a bunch of little space meow meows for you all!

Sooo, I have a star wars OC that I love very very much (beside my Revan). Say hi! Her name is Lila. I should update her lightsaber design a little (I want it to look more like a flute when it's off for... reasons I will explain) but idk when I'll do it. I created her for a very silly star wars dnd campaign I play with my friends. It has not a detailed storyline cause we play it randomly when we don't have other things to do, but we know it's set in 9/10 bby... aka in the peak of the Empire, the best time to be a jedi <3

Anyway, time for the backstory no one asked for:

Tallulah Khan (Lila's real name) was not a particularly talented youngling. She had kinda accepted she would never become a jedi knight and was fine with it. Mostly. Her emotions overcame her far too often, and despite her "fearsome" appearence she was scared of loud noises, cried a lot as a child and was often sick. She learned to draw and play the flute to steady herself when she was too overwhelmed. At 13 years old, she was thinking about what service corp to join in a few years (probably something that let her stay in the library cataloging different kind of musical artifacts). Instead, she was chosen to be a padawan. Unfortunately, her master was Pong Krell (who knows knows... Bad news, anyway. He joins the dark side). Not knowing any better and being too young to let go her childish fantasy of heroism, Tallulah accepted. Long story short, she was traumatized by him and the clone wars as a whole. After a battle she was left to lead alone cause she dared to question her master's authority (he wanted to send a lot of men in a suicide mission), Tallulah was injured pretty badly and had to be sent back to the temple to rest. There she made the decision to leave the Order for good. She was 15 at the time, and the end of the clone wars was near... like Anakin's massacre, but of course Tallulah couldn't know that. One day she packed her things, stole a speeder and went away. Shortly after the commotions on Coruscant started to happen. Tallulah watched the temple burn, too paralized by fear to go back and try to help. Realistically, there was nothing she could have done, but the guilt still eats her to this day.

Behold, a gaggle of Star Wars OCs. Feel free to ask me about any of these dorks, it’s been too long since I had a chance to rant about them properly.

First pic, from left to right: R5-B22 “Bee" (astromech droid), Kimo Elbar (human Jedi knight), Kass Copek (Gungan Force-sensitive), Ashrruk (Wookiee Force-sensitive), and Valeri Tenau (human Mandalorian).

Second pic: Kass and Ashrruk, doing epic poses.

Third pic: Kahu (Nautolan Mandalorian), a mechanic and jetpack enthusiast.

Fourth pic: Russk (Trandoshan Mandalorian), Russk’s unnamed friend (Togorian Mandalorian), and an unidentified strill.

Last pic: Russk the Trandoshan again.

Kicking it off with baby Rivas and Solu! In this au/ oc kinda thing I want the Sith to continue training multiple children in the dark side like they did before the fall of the Sith empire, and had attempted to ‘reform’ the Sith empire. This is where Rivas and Solu were taken when they were (very) little and found to be force sensitive (Rivas very much so). While they in no way were treated kindly or patiently, as Jedi are, there was a certain amount of room to ‘slack off’(?) as there were multiple children in training. Rivas spent majority of his time hiding away/sleeping and not putting in much effort when training. He knew he had a strong connection with the force and was confident in that his potential would allow him room to do as he pleases. Only ever got close with Solu.

Illustrations by Matt Busch. Unpublished “Star Wars Adventure Journal” Issue #17. May, 1998.

Timothy Zahn’s short story “Jade Solitaire” was originally slated to be released in the “Star Wars Adventure Journal” issue #17, fully illustrated by artist Matt Busch. Unfortunately, the issue was canceled, and Busch’s art was never published. He was kind enough to share some of the pieces with Jade Crusades and participate in an interview during San Diego Comic-Con in 2001. Here’s an excerpt from our chat:

How long have you been a Star Wars fan?

Since the first day I saw the movies! Actually, it's funny, when I was a kid I wasn't allowed to see Star Wars. My parents saw it first and they thought it was too violent for me. Luke's parents get slaughtered, Obi Wan Kenobi dies...and I was 4-years old when it first came out. So I actually tricked my grandparents into taking me. I've been hooked ever since.

How familiar with Mara Jade are you?

Even before I started doing official work for Lucasfilm, I was a huge Star Wars buff. In fact, I've got a Darth Vader tattoo... <<lifts up sleeve to show Vader's mask>> But before I was doing official work, I had read all the books.

What preparations did you go through before producing the “Jade Solitaire” illustrations?

At that time there wasn't an official Mara Jade model. I had a friend, Andi Ficara, who really had this unique look. From what I had read from novels and comics I thought she was perfect. I took photographs and did some preliminary sketches first to send to West End Games. They sent the sketches to Lucasfilm to make sure she was, you know, a good-looking Mara. They loved the preliminary sketches, and she worked out great. She really got into character. I actually had her read “Heir to the Empire”! I filled her in with Mara’s history, and she was really into it and did a really great job!

Is there any other unpublished Matt Busch art from the “Star Wars Adventure Journal”?

Togoria was a planet in the Mid Rim and the homeworld of the Togorians. The temperate world of Togoria, featuring isolated cities among vast savannas, deep canyons and great, deep forests.

Togorians evolved as nomadic hunters of creatures like the bist and etelo. In turn, flying reptiles called liphons preyed upon the Togorians. Primitive Togorians noticed that slightly smaller flying reptiles, mosgoths, were also targeted by liphons who attacked their nests and stole their eggs. Togorians began camping near the mosgoths for mutual protection, eventually domesticating them as mounts. Soon, a rift in their society developed—while males wanted to continue their lifestyle as nomads, females wanted the comfort and safety of permanent camps. In other species, the conflict would have led to one lifestyle winning over the other, but both male and female Togorians were too stubborn.

Eventually, the males continued their nomadic ways, riding their mosgoths and hunting, and competing in contests of prowess. Meanwhile, the females stayed in villages with pre-pubescent children, with those communes eventually growing into cities. While the males continued to hunt in the wilderness, the females tended domesticated herds and developed technology. Males would visit their mates for about a month each year, but the sexes lived completely separate lives otherwise. Whether in spite of the separation of the sexes, or because of it, Togorians were monogamous, and devoted to their chosen mates.

The Togorians were first discovered by galactic society when the Mandalorians tried to conquer Togoria. When the Togorians united to defend their planet, the Mandalorians were so impressed with the Togorians' fighting tactics and techniques that they recruited them. These Togorians were among the first non-Taung or non-Human people to join the Mandalorian ranks. When the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders were defeated, some Togorians turned to mercenary work, bounty hunting, and joining space pirate colonies organized and controlled by the Hutts.

In 32 BBY, a band of Togorian pirates used their bulk freighter and decoy space cruiser to lure the Scimitar, the Sith Lord Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator, into a trap. Maul was on his way to Tatooine to complete an important mission given him by Darth Sidious—to first track, then eliminate the two elusive Jedi ambassadors to Naboo, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, before capturing Queen Amidala and returning her to her homeworld, where she would be constrained to sign a treaty with the Trade Federation, making its invasion and occupation of the planet "legal". It was then, as Maul came out of hyperspace above Tatooine, that the Togorians attacked. After the ambushers aboard the pirate cruiser were sent to search, plunder, and retrieve Maul's ship, they found it devoid of passengers, and their captain commanded them to return to the freighter; indeed, the Zabrak assassin had jettisoned his personal escape pod to evasively infiltrate and attack the occupants of the larger pirate vessel, killing all on-board including its captain. Darth Sidious was adamant regarding Maul's critical clandestine mission, that there were to be no witnesses to Maul's presence in Tatooine space. One lingering pirate assailant, Hela-Tan, viciously fought with Maul even as the Sith Lord, having at last recovered the Scimitar, was executing his escape from the pirates' docking bay, to continue his mission to Tatooine. The pirate succeeded in administering a brutal wound to Maul's leg before the Togorian himself was sucked into space by the explosive blast of the Togorians' Sith-sabotaged freighter, which had detonated upon its bridge crew's ignition of its engines.

During the Clone Wars Togorians aided General Grievous in the Battle of Togoria. In the final days of the Galactic Republic, a Togorian Jedi youngling escaped Order 66.

During the Imperial era, they were ruled by a male hereditary monarch, titled the "Margrave of Togoria". The Margrave lived like any other nomad, save only that it was a great honor to be allowed to pitch a tent in his camp. Either his wife or a close blood relative governed the female population from the city of Caross, which was effectively the planetary capital.

Males rarely left their homeworld, though a few were pirates and mercenaries, or were unwillingly forced offworld to search for a missing mate. Since the only offworlders they met were smugglers, pirates, or slavers, they considered most of them no better than rossorworms. They found droids and Imperial stormtroopers (or "Metal Men" and "White Shells", as they called them) particularly objectionable. Offworlders on Togoria found trespassing outside Caross would be returned to the females of Caross to be dealt with. On a second offense, they were staked out for the liphons to eat. Despite this, male Togorians could be amiable towards offworlders, especially those not dependent upon technology. Han Solo and Mammon Hoole were among those who were honored by the Togorians. Solo was once invited by the Margrave to stay on Togoria and hunt with the males, while Hoole even pitched his tent in the Margrave's camp (though the Shi'ido sentientologist may have been taking the form of a Togorian at the time.)

Female Togorians, on the other hand, were willing to deal with outsiders. They stereotypically enjoyed luxury, though not to the point of decadence, and tended to be acquisitive, industrious, and cunning. Females who could afford it often rewarded themselves with a few years on resort planets such as Bespin or Ord Mantell. The females had developed fairly high technology on their own, showing expertise in solar energy. By the Imperial era, they had almost enough technical expertise to develop their own starships.

Offworlders had difficulty negotiating with Togorians in order to gain access to their planet's natural resources, so their trade was limited. Female Togorians were, however, a valuable market for comlinks, datapads, small droids, and other small electronics and luxuries. Mastercrafted scimitars or "sc'rath" produced by male Togorians fetched high prices on offworld weapons markets. Both sexes, however, preferred to walk or ride mosgoths rather than ride vehicles.

Han Solo's friend Muuurgh and his mate Mrrov were Togorians, as well as the Jedi Bhixen.

As a species, they were large bipeds, with retractable claws on their hands and feet. They were covered in gray-white to black fur, often with more colorful spots or stripes.They had extremely dense bone tissue, allowing them to endure greater physical trauma than beings with similar physiques. Their piercing jade eyes provide them with excellent vision, even in low light conditions. Female Togorians were up to 2.2 meters or 7.2 feet tall, while adult males ranged up to 3.0 meters or 9.8 feet and weighs 170 kilograms or 375 pounds.

Kuni the Twi’lek-Togorian hybrid! A commission for 4nkhari on Instagram~