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Tusken Raiders

Posted: 2003-09-25 09:50am
by Peregrin Toker
In the movies we never see Tusken Raiders without their characteristic veils and headgear which obscures their features - but is it in the EU even implied what they look like??

In the Visual Dictionary we see something which is allegedly a bone from a Tusken Raider skeleton, but that is completely incomplete information.

Re: Tusken Raiders

Posted: 2003-09-25 01:54pm
by Kuja
Simon H.Johansen wrote:In the movies we never see Tusken Raiders without their characteristic veils and headgear which obscures their features - but is it in the EU even implied what they look like??
Since they consistantly accept humans into their tribes and are able to interbreed with humans, I think it is safe to say that they are some kind of human offshoot.

Re: Tusken Raiders

Posted: 2003-09-25 03:15pm
by greenmm
Kuja wrote:
Simon H.Johansen wrote:In the movies we never see Tusken Raiders without their characteristic veils and headgear which obscures their features - but is it in the EU even implied what they look like??
Since they consistantly accept humans into their tribes and are able to interbreed with humans, I think it is safe to say that they are some kind of human offshoot.
There are also two prequal Dark Horse comics where a half-human/half-Tusken son of a famous Jedi ends up joining the Jedi. IIRC, he doesn't remove his Tusken headgear, but you get a close-up of his eyes actually through the lenses (tinted red), and they at least look humanoid, if not downright human.

So, yeah, they're probably either a closely related humanoid species, or some sort of human offshoot (perhaps descendants of a lost colony before Tattooine was resettled)...

Posted: 2003-09-25 09:29pm
by Agent R
greenmm wrote:
Kuja wrote:
Simon H.Johansen wrote:In the movies we never see Tusken Raiders without their characteristic veils and headgear which obscures their features - but is it in the EU even implied what they look like??
Since they consistantly accept humans into their tribes and are able to interbreed with humans, I think it is safe to say that they are some kind of human offshoot.
There are also two prequal Dark Horse comics where a half-human/half-Tusken son of a famous Jedi ends up joining the Jedi. IIRC, he doesn't remove his Tusken headgear, but you get a close-up of his eyes actually through the lenses (tinted red), and they at least look humanoid, if not downright human.

So, yeah, they're probably either a closely related humanoid species, or some sort of human offshoot (perhaps descendants of a lost colony before Tattooine was resettled)...
Just you know, the Jedi was A'Sharad, fathered by the Jedi known as Sharad Hett.

Tahiri Veila was also raised by the Tuskens.

Re: Tusken Raiders

Posted: 2003-09-26 02:10am
by Kuja
greenmm wrote:There are also two prequal Dark Horse comics where a half-human/half-Tusken son of a famous Jedi ends up joining the Jedi. IIRC, he doesn't remove his Tusken headgear, but you get a close-up of his eyes actually through the lenses (tinted red), and they at least look humanoid, if not downright human.
"Outlander" and "Emmisaries to Malastare"

The Tusken Jedi is A'Sharad Hett, son of Sharad "Howlrunner" Hett, the last padawan of Eeth Koth.

Re: Tusken Raiders

Posted: 2003-09-26 11:28am
by Peregrin Toker
greenmm wrote:So, yeah, they're probably either a closely related humanoid species, or some sort of human offshoot (perhaps descendants of a lost colony before Tattooine was resettled)...
If half-Tuskens are able to interbreed with humans or Tuskens as well, then they are actually the same species.

Re: Tusken Raiders

Posted: 2003-09-26 11:43am
by Spanky The Dolphin
Simon H.Johansen wrote:
greenmm wrote:So, yeah, they're probably either a closely related humanoid species, or some sort of human offshoot (perhaps descendants of a lost colony before Tattooine was resettled)...
If half-Tuskens are able to interbreed with humans or Tuskens as well, then they are actually the same species.
That's what greenmm said, Simon.

Posted: 2003-09-26 12:04pm
by greenmm
yep, that's what I said.

And thanks for providing the names of the Jedis. I couldn't remember them right off-hand, as it's been a while since I read those comics.

Re: Tusken Raiders

Posted: 2003-09-26 04:40pm
by Peregrin Toker
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Simon H.Johansen wrote:
greenmm wrote:So, yeah, they're probably either a closely related humanoid species, or some sort of human offshoot (perhaps descendants of a lost colony before Tattooine was resettled)...
If half-Tuskens are able to interbreed with humans or Tuskens as well, then they are actually the same species.
That's what greenmm said, Simon.
Given enough millions of years, Tuskens might evolve into a seperate species... (also, he wasn't that clear about it)

Re: Tusken Raiders

Posted: 2003-09-26 04:45pm
by Darth Garden Gnome
Simon H.Johansen wrote:Given enough millions of years, Tuskens might evolve into a seperate species... (also, he wasn't that clear about it)
The Star Wars universe has only had hyperdrive for 25,000 years and life in the SW originated on Courscant. Since Tatooine is an Outer Rim world, there were no humans there prior to some sort of colonization.

I agree with the sentiment that they are lost colonists. There's probably something different about them, otherwise they wouldn't be reffering to "half-tusken half-human" children at all. Unless you'd like to believe that in hundreds if not thousands of years of exploration no one has been able to kill/find a recently dead Tusken Raider and do some sort of examination of them.

Posted: 2003-09-26 05:45pm
by Spanky The Dolphin
Gnome, Humans don't come from Coruscant. Its original environmental conditions were not hospitable for Humans to have originally evolved there, primarily being that it was too cold.

There is more evidence that Corellia was the starting place for human life in the Galaxy after their transplantation from Earth.

Posted: 2003-09-26 05:48pm
by Darth Garden Gnome
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:There is more evidence that Corellia was the starting place for human life in the Galaxy after their transplantation from Earth.
Whatever, the point is that Tatooine is tens of thousands of light years away from the Core Worlds--where somewhere life originated--for humans to have been there for even million years. And since the two can cross breed, they both must be of human descendence. But since there can be "half-tusken half-humans", there must be something different about them.

Posted: 2003-09-26 09:28pm
by LadyTevar
Darth Garden Gnome wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:There is more evidence that Corellia was the starting place for human life in the Galaxy after their transplantation from Earth.
Whatever, the point is that Tatooine is tens of thousands of light years away from the Core Worlds--where somewhere life originated--for humans to have been there for even million years. And since the two can cross breed, they both must be of human descendence. But since there can be "half-tusken half-humans", there must be something different about them.
No necessarily. Remember that many children here on Earth are refered to as 'half-(race)' when they have parents of different races. The only thing different between races is skin color and minor genetic markers.

Posted: 2003-09-26 11:54pm
by Tasoth
I have a book, I forget the name, but it has artwork and its about tatooine, coruscant, dagobah and what not. They have a picture of a groupd of tuskens without their headgear on. They have long pointed ears with tufts, fur and remind me of a cross between a lynx and ewok facially. Not sure how canon it is, but it has the Shi'ido naturalist guy as the writer for the tatooine part. That and the tuskens were able to sense that he wasn't a tusken raider when he disguised himself.

EDIT: the title is The Illustrated Star Wars Universe. Page 45, a group of tuskens gathered around the fire as a story teller tells his story. On the second page of the picture, the two tuskens standing to the left of the story teller have a humanoid peeking around them. Guessing thats a Tusken so I haven't made myself look like an ass.

Posted: 2003-09-27 12:04am
by Darth Garden Gnome
Tasoth wrote:<snip>
That would be The Illustrated Star Wars Universe by Ralph McQuarrie and Kevin J. Anderson. Page 45 has a picture of a group of Tuskens gathered around a campfire. A single one is without headgear, but that is Senior Anthropolgist Hoole, using his mild telepathic powers to divert attention away from himself. It is Tusken tradition that if one Tusken sees the bare flesh of another (except if they are married) that they must battle to the death.

Re: Tusken Raiders

Posted: 2003-09-27 01:06am
by Kuja
Darth Garden Gnome wrote:The Star Wars universe has only had hyperdrive for 25,000 years
BZZZT!

The Great Hyperspace War took place roughly 50,000 years before the Battle of Yavin, and hyperspace was already in common use by that time.

and life in the SW originated on Courscant.
BZZZT! again.

Coruscant is but one of many worlds from which life originated. Among them number Corellia and Duro.
Since Tatooine is an Outer Rim world, there were no humans there prior to some sort of colonization.
The first colonists on Tatooine were miners, and the Jawas got the Sandcrawlers from them when they abandoned that profession and took up moisture farming.

Posted: 2003-09-27 02:22am
by StarshipTitanic
BZZZT! again.

Coruscant is but one of many worlds from which life originated. Among them number Corellia and Duro.
I'm sure he was refering to human life, which seemed to have come from Corellia. Did any of Coruscant's original population survive? I remember some names like "Hurang" and "Pelong" and they had a big war and a volcano erupted on them.

Posted: 2003-09-27 02:26am
by Kuja
StarshipTitanic wrote:
BZZZT! again.

Coruscant is but one of many worlds from which life originated. Among them number Corellia and Duro.
I'm sure he was refering to human life, which seemed to have come from Corellia.
I know. But I couldn't resist ribbing him a bit. :wink:
Did any of Coruscant's original population survive? I remember some names like "Hurang" and "Pelong" and they had a big war and a volcano erupted on them.
That would be the Taungs and the Battalions of Zhell. The Zhell army was wiped out by a volcanic explosion, leaving the Taungs victorious.

Re: Tusken Raiders

Posted: 2003-09-27 01:01pm
by Old Plympto
Kuja wrote: The Great Hyperspace War took place roughly 50,000 years before the Battle of Yavin, and hyperspace was already in common use by that time.
Didn't the Great Hyperspace Wars occur 5,000 BBY? When Odan-Urr was a young Jedi. He died during the Sith War a thousand years later, murdered by Exar Kun.

Posted: 2003-09-27 05:14pm
by Spanky The Dolphin
Yes, the Great Hyperspace War was 5000 years ago, during the Golden Age of the Sith, and resulted in the fall of the Sith Empire.

Kuja, nothing happened 50,000 years ago. The only thing that did was the Yevethans gaining sentience.

Hyperdrive was never developed any earlier than 25,000 years ago.

Posted: 2003-09-29 12:20pm
by Kuja
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Yes, the Great Hyperspace War was 5000 years ago, during the Golden Age of the Sith, and resulted in the fall of the Sith Empire.

Kuja, nothing happened 50,000 years ago. The only thing that did was the Yevethans gaining sentience.
Yup, my bad.
Hyperdrive was never developed any earlier than 25,000 years ago.
Wrong. 25,000 years ago was when hyperdrive came into COMMON use. Ref, Chonology:


Approximately twenty-five thousand years before the New Republic, the widespread use of faster-than-light hyperscpace travel brought the galaxy together as a single community, giving birth to a democratic union of star systems known as the Galactic Republic.


Preseumably, hyperdrives were researched, developed, and mass produced sometime before that.

Posted: 2003-09-29 12:40pm
by Spanky The Dolphin
Bah, semantics. :P

Posted: 2003-09-29 12:49pm
by Ghost Rider
Knights gives some minor info on the Tusken Raiders.

Giant Spoilers



Durning the time of the Infinite Empire of the Rakataan they implemented the Tusken Raiders as a sort of laborer/slave that was properly suited for harsher enviroments that other couldn't adapt as easily.

Eventually they transported them to Tatooine because the original project there failed.

As for descriptions...not much. Basically a rough humanoid.

Also another good indicator of Hyperdrives being used its that the Rakataans would need them or or going through the galaxy would be a dicey propostion at best...and then again developing a field generator against it would a stroke of luck