Trandoshan

"The sun has risen. Let the hunt begin."

- Garnac prepares for a hunt

Trandoshans, also called T'doshok, were large, bipedal reptilian sentient humanoids from the planet Trandosha, and were renowned as great hunters. Trandoshans relished the thrill of a hunt, and Trandoshans were known to embark on a hunting related rite of passage. Garnac was a Trandoshan hunter who operated a game preserve on the moon Wasskah, and oversaw his son's fatally failed rite of passage, which was done in the form of hunting a Jedi Padawan. One of the most feared bounty hunters in the galaxy was a Trandoshan known as Bossk, who pulled jobs for various organizations, including the Galactic Empire.

Biology and appearance
Trandoshans were sentient humanoids with smooth, scaly skin. Trandoshans ranged from being tall and fairly gaunt, to being short and more rotund. Trandoshans were powerful beings, and had long thin arms that ended in either three thick digits, or four thin digits, including a thumb. Trandoshans had a pair of eyes set back on a pointed skull, and a maw filled with pointed teeth. Trandoshans often walked barefooted, and had feet with three digits each. A Trandoshan's skin color could vary wildly, and Trandoshans could be found with green, red, orange, brown, or yellow skin. Some Trandoshans, such as one named Smug, had brownish-orange skin with red stripes on his face.

History
Trandoshans came from the planet Trandosha, and were hunting enthusiasts. They were identifiable in the galactic community by the time of the intergalactic Clone Wars, and had taken control of the moon Wasskah, which became the location of island game preserves. The hunter Garnac had control of the island designated as Island Four, and ran a hunting guild based out of a floating fortress that hovered above the island. Garnac's scouts would travel to different worlds and collect other sentient beings before delivering them to Wasskah and dumping them on island four, where the prisoners would be hunted for sport. During the Clone Wars, a trio of Jedi younglings were captured and brought to Wasskah. For a long time, the trio managed to avoid the Trandoshans, who continued to deliver other prey to the island. Eventually, the Trandoshan Lo-Taren captured the Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano on the planet Felucia and brought her to island four alongside several other prisoners. Once delivered to the island, Tano escaped and discovered the other younglings.

Garnac's son, Dar, later set out to kill Tano himself as part of an important rite of passage, but was instead killed by the Jedi. Garnac gave chase, killing the youngling Kalifa. Later, other Trandoshan scouts abducted the Wookiee Chewbacca, but before Chewbacca could be successfully delivered, the Trandoshan transport ship was damaged and it crashed on the hunting island. Tano killed the two man crew, and escaped the wreckage with Chewbacca. The Wookiee was able to craft a communications device with some of the scavenged wreckage, and was able to contact the Wookiee general Tarfful. Tano, the remaining younglings, and the Wookiee forces engaged Garnac's guild on their fortress, and killed all of the Trandoshan hunters.

Meanwhile, the bounty hunter Bossk took on numerous jobs, and eventually acted as a bodyguard to the upcoming bounty hunter Boba Fett. In time, Bossk would be revered as one of the most feared bounty hunters in the galaxy. On one occasion, Bossk visited the planet Lothal to collect a bounty on the Dug criminal Gronson Takkaro. This brought him into contact with the young Force-sensitive Human youth Ezra Bridger and into conflict with the corrupt Imperial Security Bureau Lieutenant Jenkes, who was in league with Takkaro. With the help of Ezra, Bossk succeeded in exposing Jenkes' criminal dealings.

Trandoshans in the galaxy
The species had a poor history with the Wookiees, who hated the reptilian people. Some Trandoshans chose to find other outlets for work, as opposed to hunting. One was Gha Nachkt, who lived life as a salvager. He was eventually hired by the Confederacy of Independent Systems to scour the sites of damaged ships owned by the Galactic Republic and find any useful data or scraps. Nachkt eventually recovered an R2 series astromech droid from a Republic starfighter, but the droid was eventually recovered by the Jedi Anakin Skywalker, while Nachkt was killed by General Grievous.



Bossk's bounty hunting career brought him to various locales across the galaxy, and was for a time involved with the bounty hunters Aurra Sing and Castas. Bossk and Boba Fett worked with the other bounty hunters in an attempt to avenge Fett's fallen father, Jango, by killing Mace Windu, the Jedi who killed Jango. Sing later killed Castas, while Bossk and Fett were arrested by Republic authorities after a failed assassination. However, during a prison riot, both Bossk and Fett escaped the Republic prison they were sent too. They would later form a team of bounty hunters on the planet Tatooine and accept a job posted by the Belugan government on the planet Quarzite. Although Bossk was subdued by adversaries during the mission, team member Asajj Ventress was able to complete the mission, to a degree. When Ventress discovered that the cargo they were hired to protect was Pluma Sodi, a native Kage female, Ventress swapped the imprisoned girl with Fett, and was paid for the job's completion before the change was discovered. Much later, Bossk accepted a job from the Galactic Empire, which he did not complete, being beaten to the job by Fett.

Nack Movers was a Trandoshan assassin who was well known in the Coruscant underworld, and at some point during the Clone Wars he bought a lightsaber. He was later murdered by his girlfriend, Ione Marcy, who then took the lightsaber for herself.

Behind the scenes
The Trandoshan species first appeared in the 1980 movie Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back in the form of a cameo appearance by the bounty hunter Bossk. The Trandoshans also appeared in numerous Legends products including the Star Wars Marvel Comics, the Young Jedi Knights young adult novel series, and Dark Horse Comics' Knights of the Old Republic comics. The species have also appeared in several Canon products including the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Ryder Windham's young reader novella Ezra's Gamble, and the Marvel comic series Star Wars Darth Vader.

Trandoshans have also appeared as the secondary antagonists of the non-Canon LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures episode "Peril on Kashyyyk", which premiered on Disney XD on June 27, 2016. In this story, the Trandoshans and Wookiees are depicted as having an antagonistic relationship with the former acting as proxies for the Galactic Empire. The Trandoshans take Chief Attabura's son Tantarra and hold him hostage in an island fortress. The Freemakers, a scavenging family, rescue him in return for obtaining a piece of wroshyr wood from the Wookiees.