Hitting the Books: Smuggler’s Guide

The recently released Smuggler’s Guide is in no way a book about aliens, but there are lots of references to old Expanded Universe aliens and creatures in there, I thought it would be interesting to bring you all up to speed about them. Dan Wallace is one of the more knowledgeable writers out there, and his work has shown that he knows his EU, and gladly doesn’t hide his love for the old West End Games era material. There’s lots of other cool material in the book, besides the aliens, check out this neat little summary of some of the most important things over at the StarWarsCanon reddit page. Anyway, let’s take a look at what can be found in this tome.

The Beginnings

Maz started the journal, and lays out a nice map of the Galaxy with lots of old West End Games planets in there. On the map we spot the Gree Enclave, and one of their planets, Te Hasa, is listed as a “point of interest”. Gree are a species that have been around since the ‘90s, when the Green Enclave was introduced by Timothy S. O’Brien in the Adventure Journal. They were a tentacled race that was one of the Galaxy’s oldest civilizations. It was believed their technological advances predated the Galactic Republic by hundreds of millennia. I’ll dig into the ancient times one day, as there’s a lot of cool interactions with these ancient races. The Gree also made an appearance in the MMORPG The Old Republic. Most people will know Gree from Commander Gree, Clone commander CC-1004, that named himself after the race.

Other homeworlds of EU species are on the map too, and they are still in the same places they used to be. I don’t want to say “recanonized” because the map never changed. Those worlds have always been there, and will always be until relocated. Next to the map is a legend that also notes down some of the most profitable smuggling cargoes.

One of them is Quarren artisanal ink, which apparently is used in Hutt Kajidic tattoos, which is a new piece of information. Harch industrial adhesive is probably an inside joke referencing to the fact that spider silk, one of the strongest materials known to man, has adhesive properties. The spider reference, of course, is due to the Harch (Admiral Trench’s species) are based of of real world spiders.

The Kibnon and Nevoota stimulant pollen refer to two insect species. The Kibnon are distantly related to the Verpine, and first seen in 1993’s Galaxy Guide 7: Mos Eisely, in which they were illustrated by Mike Vilardi. The Nevoota, from the eponymous planet Nevoota, were first talked about by Abel G. Peña in The History of the Mandalorians. The in-game Codex of The Old Republic detailed how they were wiped out in a war with the Mandalorians, and SkyeWalkers indicated they are vespids (i.e. they looked like wasps). Abel later explained the Nevoota were a nod to an old in-joke about the “Nevoota Bee”, which was Tom Veitch’s explanation for a buzzing sound in a bad copy of A New Hope.

Tomb Raiders

Tryphon, who stole the journal from Maz, is a Volpai. Although it goes unstated, Dan confirmed to me we can interpret it as such. A xenoexplorer named Reginald Danfillo, who found the journal on Tryphon’s corps, describes him as “human, probably”, as he only saw an arm. The pictures clearly show him having four arms though, and since his last name is Leo (as in Tiggs Leo, the bartender we see in The Clone Wars episode “Lethal Trackdown”), the connection to Volpai is not such an odd deduction.

He died, by the way, trying to raid the Shrove of the Left-Handed God Typhojem, a deity worshiped by the Kissai (one of the Sith subspecies) from one of Dan’s earlier in-universe works, the Book of Sith (and actually something from Supernatural Encounters that was cancelled but recently released).

Reginald had collected some Quesoth pottery shards before he got to work on the Typhojem Excavation (where he found Tryphon). The Quesoth are an insectoid species from the planet Quethold, who were described in Timothy Zahn’s Crisis of Faith.

Dex is next in line to pick up the book. He found it in a box of reading material, which also included The Field Guide to Trammic Reptavians. Apparently there’s a book on reptavians (a class of species with both reptilian and avian characteristics, such as Pikobis and Varactyls) of Trammis III. Trammis III is a world from the old Lando Calrissian adventures (Mindharp of the Sharu), but we don’t know much about its wildlife really, other than that there are momes, a species of subterranean creatures, according to a short story in Star Wars Gamer 1 (Fair Prey, by Dan).

Dex then travels to Athus Klee, homeworld of the Klee, a race of beings made extinct by Xim the Despot. The planet still has some wildlife, as Dex is plagued by gnats and bitten by vipers. He also mentions the Kaminoans in his writings on page 14, even though on page 11 he talks about strange rumors about bodies grown to customer specs, which suggests he hadn’t met the cloners yet.

The Big Hunt

Tyro is a Krish hunter (from the same short story as the Trammic momes), and professional bragger. He goes hunting for a terentatek on Kashyyyk. Terentateks have been around for a while, basically since KOTOR, and were originally found on Sith worlds such as Korriban and Dromund Kaas. More recent sources point their homeworld as Kashyyyk, which the Smugger’s Guide follows. It includes an illustration of how he wants to present his specimen for taxidermy.

He travels to the Wookiee homeworld by way of an Ugor steamer, and talks about the stench coming of the “shapeless jelly bags”. The Ugor are a sentient species of unicellular organisms (unique in the Star Wars universe) from the Paradise system. They can shape their bodies in any form they wanted, but often opt to take on a somewhat humanoid shape when dealing with outsider, and are constricted to environmental suits outside their home. Their first appearance was in the 1989 Scavenger Hunt, but they’ve recently made an appearance in Solo, bringing them from the EU to the big screen.

On Kashyyyk he encounters fellow hunters, but the Trandoshans are after Wookiee pelts (as is tradition). Tyro witnesses a pit fight between to unnamed creatures. Although they are described and pictured, they both appear to be new to the Star Wars galaxy (correct me if I’m wrong, but they don’t look familiar to me).

He compares it to bursa baiting on Ohma-D’un and monster fights on Geonosis. Bursas are quadrupeds from Galactic Battlegrounds, but originally designed by Amy Pronovost for Dan Wallace’s canceled Essential Guide to Episode I. He furthermore encounters some sureggi, an amphibian creature used as mounts by the Wookiees that date all the way back to The Kashyyyk Depths, a comic strip published in 1979.

Pirates of the Galaxy

The book later falls to Weequay pirate Hondo Ohnaka, who according to the notes left by Lando once ran a shaak-breeding cam in the Cron Drift. Hondo himself talks about obtaining a Kowakian Monkey-Lizard, which seems to be the Star Wars equivalent of a pirate’s parrot.

When the book continues on with Aqualish pirate Gunda Mabin (from Pirates & Privateers, 1997), she describes Hondo as a snakebit scur and a mynock-scraper. The pirate lingo and lore in this book is absolutely fantastic! The Chadra-Fan language is described as “Chadra chitters”.

A new species is actually introduced by Krastic Tarta, a Thalassian slaver who found an race of purple six-armed species, who go unnamed other than “the natives”, and are from a planet that also goes unnamed. They are depicted though, and are certainly a new addition to the galaxy. Sadly, at the moment there’s not really any name to catalogue them under.

The Heist

The Varcinius Agglomeration acquires the book on a slave market, together with a bulk purchase of Whiphid ivory. The going rate at the time for the ivory, harvested from the Whiphids’ tusks, was about 2300 credits per kilogram. He stores the book in his vault, where it is later stolen by Gallandro (yes, Gallandro!) and his crew. They are actually looking for the Codeleach, a jewel-encrusted skeleton of a Metellos wyrdwyrm, which is probably some form of sea serpent (at least, that’s what a wyrm is).

Not-so-“Honest” Loonoo then takes the book for himself when he runs of to Nar Shaddaa, where he lives with his rib-cats. Rib-cats are a species of six-legged felines that roamed the streets of Nar Shaddaa. Loonoo counted five of them as his pets (Ashes, Molly, Mixie, Grish and Smokey). His apartment was a crappy room underneath a restaurant aquarium filled with schools needlebaskers, spiky krastiks and Mon Cal octopods. His cats eat vitablox, while Loonoo himself dines on purlah soup, but without the traditional boiled momong head in it. That just put me off my appetite.

When Skrrll nicks his journal he comments on how the rib-cats remind him of his old hushstalker Brutux. All these animals are new, with exception of the momong, a six-limbed monkey that is seen in the Wasskah episodes of The Clone Wars.

The Syndicates

Lando picks up the book (for the first time) via Devaronian smuggler Cikatro Vizago, but loses it after he was trying to impress a Trianii debutante. The Trianii are a feline race first introduced in Brian Daley’s Han Solo at Stars’ End in 1979, and used in various later sources, including the Rogue One tie-in novel Catalyst. They are one of a few alien species that are basically anthropomorphic cats.

Theelin bounty hunter Latts Razzi set up her own syndicate apparently, under the uninspiring name Razzi Syndicate. She employs a few people that are members of some old Expanded Universe races. Her “submister” Twirm is an Adarian, the famous “Hole-in-the-head” species that was originally designed as a character for Jabba’s Palace, but never made it past the model stage (Galaxy Guide 12, 1995).

Prowling Thug 36 is an Esoomian brawler named Bumblethunk. Esoomians are hulking humanoids from Esooma, and based on designs by Joe Johnston for the Rancor (Wanted by Cracken, 1993). A pickpocket by the name of “Sticky Fingers” is a Rybet, an opportunistic species of amphibian origins. Him (or her?) being a pickpocket fits the species as we knew them from the EU, where most of them had questionable ethics and morals. Arguably the most famous Rybet is Moruth Doole, from Kevin J. Anderson’s The Jedi Academy Trilogy. Twirm is fired by the end of Razzi’s entries, and to be fed to the undercrab.

Dryden’s next in line for the journal, who recovers it from a raid on Razzi’s warehouse. One of the other crates he takes into his possession contains exotic animal parts: rancor fangs, aiwha sacs, shaved mynock silicate, sando (aqua monster) tooth cuttings of 2 meters wide, dried octopod ink and various Corellian hound components.

The most interesting find was two complete, mummified tu’kata specimens. Tu’kata are also known as Sith Hounds, and were used to guard the tombs of the Sith Lords on Korriban. First seen in the Tales of the Jedi comics in 1994, but not identified as tu’kata until 1998’s The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons (also by Dan Wallace).

The Heist, Part Two

Tobias Beckett finds the book next, in a crate they nabbed from Dryden. His crew is going to rob a train on Cato Neimoidia. It’s him, Val, Rio Durant (whose species is missing due to an error, but he’s an Ardennian) and Tuska, a Mon Calamari. The plan fails, as Enfys Nest interferes, much like in Solo.

Next up is “Bandit Billie”, who employs a group of Taurill to steal a ship. It was sold as a good idea, since the Taurill are a hive mind species, so they won’t need a large crew. The poodoo hits the fan, of course, because the Taurill are not really up to the part. Billie notices that only a quarter of them really seem to do anything, the rest just fake it. Readers of the EU knew this was bound to happen, as we know the Taurill from Darksaber (by Kevin J. Anderson, 1995), where they created a useless superweapon for Durga the Hutt, with faulty work and defective materials. It’s nice to see some Bantam-era species included in modern material. Also includes a nice picture of Taurill.

Fun and Games

Famous smuggler Platt Okeefe, from the Platt’s Smugglers Guide published by West End Games in 1997 somehow obtains the book, and writes about a lot of things referencing to old EU work. She does mention offloading a cargo of Jovanian gorefruits, grown by the Jovanians on battlefields. These Jovanians are from Jovan, a world from the comic strip Race for Survival (1983). I’ve asked Dan about these guys, but he intended the Jovanians as “inhabitants of Jovan” rather than an actual new alien species. That’s not to say that any future source could make them to be a species.

Lando gets his hands on the book for a second time, and describes his trip to Canto Bight. It includes a flyer with all the games to be played at the casino, including the Fathier racing (from The Last Jedi), but also Odupiendo racing (first seen in Attack of the Clones, inside the Outlander Club). Also a nice ad for his mechanical cheating device he uses in the movie to hide cards up his sleeve, which apparently is created by SquibLabs. The Squib are a blue-furred species known for their collecting and haggling, and were featured in numerous books and other sources. Their origin, however, lies in Scavenger Hunt from 1989, same as the Ugor.

He abandons the journal on Makem Te, the Swokes Swokes homeworld, and it finds its way to BoShek. BoShek describes his aspirations as a swoop racer, and includes some pictures of him and his fellow races. Among them are a Teedo (The Force Awakens), a Twi’lek, an Azumel (Solo), a Caskadag (TFA) and an Ubdurian (TFA), and species with long antennae that may or may not have been inspired by a Riileb, but I can’t really place it. A Troig and and a Devlikk are mentioned in his writing (both from The Phantom Menace).

Aboard the Falcon

Chewbacca and Han Solo get the book next, and decide to go after Maz’s node on Columi. That plan didn’t really work out though, as apparently the Columi are very trigger-happy. Columi are one of the oldest sentient species in the galaxy, and recognizable by their enormous heads with large brains. They also have their origins in West End Games.

The book then trades hands a few times, ending up with Grakkus the Hutt (from the current Marvel comics), who sticks in all sorts of posters for his gladiator fights, which includes one for the “beast fights”. Gundarks versus nexus, neks (Dark Empire, 1991) versus garagons (Galaxy Guide 8, 1993), slashrats (, Dark Tide I 2000) versus salky hounds (SWTOR), and the battle royale: dalyrakes (Star Wars Galaxies) versus the acklay Old Hardshell. Another poster advertises a fight between Wookiee Wrollanppf “One-Eyed Volant the Eviscerator” and Lasat Zandarreo “Jetsam of Lasan”.

The gladiators rebel, and the book finds its way back via some Wookiees to Chewbacca. Han continues writing, and describes cleaning stone mites from the Falcon, with picture. The stone mites were created for Attack of the Clones, but I don’t think they can ever be really seen in the movie. Among Han’s ideas for new jobs are the Ezaraa, a religious race of warmongering carnivores first seen in The Screaming Citadel.

Rogue Ones

Cycyed Ock, a Keredian and one of Saw Gerrera’s Partisans, manages to lay his hands on the journal. He muses about his old crew, the Gullet Gang, which included a nice selection of alien species. In addition to Cycyed himself there were Nersiton, a Siniteen who worked for Gallandro earlier in the book; Kullbee Sperado, a Meftian who was also part of the Partisans; Oss-Rin-Arrek, a Tiss’shar contortionist; Isin, an Advozsec financier who went on to work for Gar Jan Rue’s Traveling Menagerie; and Rufork Tamson, Karkarodon stunt racer and possibly related to Riff Tamson from The Clone Wars. The Tiss’shar are a reptilian race that look a lot like either velociraptors or Komodo dragons, depending on which source you check (which is no big deal, as there’s at least six subspecies established in literature), and were first seen in Brian Daley’s Han Solo at Stars’ End.

Prima Wessex, who works for the Whisper Network, later compares the network to other spy networks in the galaxy, including Deep Current, which we know as Deep Fathom from the Rebel Files, the spynet ran by Tynnan Saltbite. The Kupohan Spynet refers to the Kupohan from Heir to the Jedi and Aftermath. The Assemblers are a bit obscurer, hailing from the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy of 1998. They are an arachnid species who build webs in outer space. Only two specimens are known: Ku’dar Mub’at and Balancesheet, who was originally a semi-autonomous node spawned by Ku’dar.

More Pirates and Scum

Doctor Evazan then steals the book from Prima’s corpse after killing her. In his entries he discusses getting Ponda Baba a replacement arm, and tells the story of the pipe-birds. These birds can mimic songs and spread them across the galaxy by thousands of years of spaceflight.

Riley uses a Lotho Junker (from The Clone Wars episode “Brothers”) instead of a more expensive BioTech cybernetic joint. Junkers are an odd species of scavengers that look like they are build out of scrap parts.

Sidon Ithano’s entry to the journal includes pictures of his crew from the short story The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku, some of which we’ve already seen pictured in Scum and Villainy. Reeg Brosna, the Arcona, was not seen before.

Bala-Tik describes how the Guavian Death Gang members come to be. Apparently they start out as regular organics that are slowly turned into cybernetic machines in a process called “mechamorphosis”. He himself is in the early stages, and only has one implant.

Closing Remarks

The book ends up cycling through the various owners of the Millennium Falcon, up until the point the ship is reunited with Han and Chewie. The last two pages of the book are arguably the best, where Han and Leia write down their feelings for each other, after they had been separated for so long. We all know what happens in the movies, and this adds a nice touch.

Just for the sake of completeness, here’s an alphabetical list of all species and creatures mentioned or depicted in the journal (and the paraphernalia):

Species: Abednedo (image only), Adarian, Advozsec, Aqualish, Arcona (image only), Ardennian (image only), Assembler, Azumel (image only), Besalisk, Caskadag (image only), Chadra-Fan, Chevin, Columi, Delphidian, Devaronian, Devlikk, Duros (image only), Esoomian, Ezaara, Gabdorin, Gamorrean, Harch, Herglic, Human, Hutt, Jablogian (image only), Jawa, Junker, Kaleesh, Kaminoan, Karkarodon, Keredian, Kibnon, Kowakian Monkey-Lizard, Kupohan, Lasat, Mandallian, Meftian, Mon Calamari, Nevoota, Pyke, Quarren, Quesoth, Rodian, Rybet, Siniteen, Squib, Suerton, Swokes Swokes, Taurill, Teedo (image only), Thalassian, Theelin (image only), Thiss-shar, Trandoshan, Trianii, Troig, Twi’lek (image only), Ubdurian (image only), Ugor, Volpai (image only), Weequay, Whiphid, Wookiee, Zabrak, Zeltron, Zygerrian

Creatures: Acklay, Aiwha, Bursa, Corellian Hound, Dinko, Fathier, Garagon, Ghhhk (image only), Gorm-worm, Gundark, Houjix (image only), Hushstalker, K’lor’slug (image only), Krastik, Momong, Mon Cal Octopod, Monnok (image only), Mynock, Needlebasker, Nek, Nerf, Nexu, Odupiendo, Panna Frog, Pipe-bird, Puffer Pig, Rancor, Rib-cat, Salky Hound, Sando Aqua Monster, Savrip (image only), Shaak, Slashrat, Stone Mite, Sureggi, Terentatek, Tu’kata, Undercrab, Wyrdwyrm

Thanks to Dan (follow his work on Twitter) for providing some insights and answers! Smuggler’s Guide by Epic Ink is out now, available for purchase on Amazon. A non-vault edition of the book will most likely be released next year.