Aqualish
From the Encyclopedia of Speculative Fiction - http://encyclopedia.wizards.pro
The Aqualish were tusked bipeds from the planet Ando whose appearance combined aspects of arachnids and aquatic mammals. Aqualish had a reputation for being nasty, crude and aggressive, and generally pursued off-world careers as mercenaries, bounty hunters and pirates. One of the most infamous such Aqualish was the smuggler Ponda Baba.
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Culture and History
The three types of Aqualish, the Aquala, the Ualaq, and the Quara, were distinguished by their hands and eyes. Aquala had finned hands, while the Ualaq and Quara had clawed, fingered hands. The fingered Aqualish also varied in the number of eyes -- while the Quara (like the Aquala) had two eyes, the less common Ualaq had four; the Quara had five-fingered hands like those of humans, while the Ualaq had three-fingered hands with very thick digits. Though Ualaq and Quara only made up about ten per cent of the Aqualish population, their fingered hands made them more comfortable with technology. Thus, they were the species more commonly found off-world.
When Aqualish discovered sublight space travel capability from a exploratory craft that they destroyed, they began a series of bloody conflicts with their sister world. As Ando joined the Galactic Republic, the violence became a black mark on the species' reputation, and the Republic initiated several attempts to demilitarize the Aqualish, each ending in conflicts like the Battle of Raquish and the Horos Spine Incident.
By 95 BBY, the Aqualish had colonized fifteen Mid Rim worlds that later formed the Andoan Free Colonies. During the Clone Wars, the Andoan Senator Po Nudo seceded from the Republic, aligning much of the Aqualish species and their homeworld with Count Dooku's Confederacy of Independent Systems. However, the Andoan Free Colonies, represented by Senator Gorothin Vagger, remained loyal to the Republic.
Under Palpatine's Galactic Empire, the Empire took over Ando and turned it into a police state to control the violent Aqualish. Several Imperial and corporate interests were also permitted to ravage Ando's natural resources. Though the Aqualish resented the Empire, they showed no interest in joining the Rebel Alliance. Still, by 9 ABY, Ando had joined the New Republic. This made the Aqualish homeworld the target of a feint atack by Grand Admiral Thrawn's Bellicose before his assault on Ukio.
During the Yuuzhan Vong invasion in 25 ABY, Ando was offered to be spared by Warmaster Tsavong Lah if they destroyed all droid units and killed any Jedi on the planet. Thus, the Aqualish killed the Jedi Knight Dorsk 82, only to be invaded and crushed regardless.
Appearances
- Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
- Edge of Victory I: Conquest
- The Joiner King
Behind the scenes
In one of A New Hope's best known continuity errors, Ponda Baba's arm has fin-like hands when still attached, but is furry and clawed in the close-up shots of the severed arm on the floor. This inspired the writers at West End Games to develop the Aquala and Quara types of Aqualish. When Aqualish characters appeared in the prequel trilogy, more detailed, four-eyed masks – Ualaq masks – were used.
Sources
- Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races, 2nd Edition. West End Games 1994.
- Ultimate Alien Anthology, Wizards of the Coast 2003.
- Ando: Planet of the Walrus Men. Wizards of the Coast 2003.