Wampa/Legends

"Hey, steady girl. What's the matter, you smell something?"

- Luke Skywalker, to his tauntaun, before a wampa attack

Wampa ice creatures were carnivorous predatory reptomammals indigenous to the ice planet Hoth.

Physiological and societal characteristics
Covered with white fur and standing at heights of up to three meters, wampas were fearsome predatory beasts. They possessed long, powerful arms, razor-sharp claws capable of carving layers out of ice, and a deadly, fanged maw. Older wampas possessed horns, which grew larger with age. Aided by an acute sense of smell and a well-camouflaged coat of thick fur, they roamed Hoth's icy plains preying on near-helpless animals. Wampas rarely killed their prey outright or hunted when they were hungry. Instead, they stunned their prey, hauled the still breathing victims back to their caves, and secured them in the ice for later consumption. Their primary prey were Hoth's omnivorous tauntauns.



Sub-species of wampa included the giant wampa, a variation of the Hoth wampa representing either a long-lived individual, a sub-species, a freak mutation, or a separate species altogether; the cliff wampa, a beast bioengineered by the Galactic Empire and used as sentinels on the Outer Rim Territories moon of Gall; and the swamp wampa of Dromund Kaas, genetically altered by the Sith. There also existed Tatooine Howlers, colloquially named desert wampas, for their strong resemblance to wampas. It was often mistaken for a relative of the wampa and as a result was called such.

Wampas typically made their homes out of the large ice caverns beneath Hoth's surface. They were created by carving down into the ice and hollowing out an area sizeable enough to occupy and store food in. Wampa caves were surprisingly spacious when compared to the manufactured dens of other large predators. The purpose of the cave was undoubtedly to shield these large predators from the bitter cold nights or raging storms that swept across the glaciers. Additionally, the caves were well lit from the snow and ice reflecting the light rays of Hoth's sun into the cave.



They hung their recently captured prey from the ice ceilings of their dwellings, using a method of coating their prey with an anesthetized saliva combined with their hot breath to freeze them in place. Preferring their meals to consist of fresh meat, their prey was often kept alive before consumption. Discovered wampa lairs were found to house huge amounts of stored prey, a frightening realization to many that a single beast could be so lethal.

They were believed to be solitary creatures, though some wampas were known to occasionally hunt in packs. Their white fur allowed them to blend in perfectly with Hoth's blinding blizzards, enabling them to attack their prey completely unawares. Wampas were capable of emitting a terrifying hunting roar that could compete with Hoth's howling winds. Their howl was one of their greatest natural gifts, for it could blend in almost imperceptibly with the winds. Only the creatures themselves could tell the two sounds apart. Thus, the howl provided wampas with a highly efficient form of communication that often proved lethal to disoriented prey.

The wampa attack on Luke Skywalker in 3 ABY suggested a sort of pair bonding between male and female wampas, and that their lives may have been far from exclusively solitary. While Skywalker was attacked by a male wampa, he regained consciousness in the den of a female. It is unclear whether or not wampas were monogamous or if they traveled about hunting and bringing food to various mates. After mating, female wampas would birth up to three cubs per litter. If, however, a cub wandered out of the den and made its first kill, other wampas would commonly give extreme attention to that cub.

The horror by night


As a measure of security, the Alliance to Restore the Republic's Standard Operating Procedure at Echo Base included setting up external sentry stations, placing sensor markers, scouting kilometers of territory, and setting up a blanketing sensor array. With these measures in place, the personnel of Echo Base originally encountered no life forms other than a few passive tauntauns and the occasional snowmouse. As a result, a sense of security settled over Echo Base. There simply seemed to be very little danger on the remote ice planet. Dispatched mounted scouts originally rode in pairs so that they might be better prepared in the case of unforeseen danger. But the lack of any apparent danger and a lack of trained personnel soon forced the scouts to travel by themselves. They reasoned they could cover twice the territory that way.

The first sign the Rebels saw that they were not alone was the discovery of a dead tauntaun just outside the base. When the dead animal was brought before 2-1B, the base's head medical droid, he determined that the tauntaun's neck had been snapped. Knowing how strong saddling the stubborn animals were, the thought that some creature was strong enough to do such damage was more than frightening to the base's personnel. Major Bren Derlin, head of security at Echo Base, logged the incident into his reports, but gave it little more thought. There simply were more pressing matters to attend to.

Soon thereafter, Luke Skywalker failed to report in while on a routine mission to place sensor beacons around the perimeter of the base. He was attacked by a wampa while astride his tauntaun. The wampa landed a crushing blow to Skywalker's face with a swipe of its powerful claw, knocking him unconscious and opening up a considerable gash on the side of his face. The tauntaun was killed instantly with a crushing grip of its neck. The monster then carried Skywalker and his tauntaun back to its den. When Skywalker awoke, he found himself hanging upside down, his feet frozen to the cave's ceiling and another wampa eating the corpse of his dead mount. Fortunately for Skywalker, he was able to escape the wampa, using his lightsaber to slice off the creature's arm before it could attack him.



When Skywalker revived from his medical treatment inside of a bacta tank, he confirmed everyone's worst fears. He described being attacked by a ferocious monster three meters in height, with deadly claws and a nasty temperament. Although he had only knowingly seen one of the beasts, where there was one, there had to be more. As a result, the base immediately stepped up its security measurs. Patrols went back to the buddy system.

The following evening after Skywalker's recovery, Echo Base came under attack. It started with the sound of howling. The noise was not unusual, as those in the base were so accustomed to Hoth's howling winds. But this noise was more distinct, stronger, and more chilling. Next came an attack on one of the base's perimeter posts. The base's command center received a brief, panicked comlink call from Bervin, a perimeter scout, which was abruptly cut off by a bellowing inhuman roar and a horrified, distinctly Human scream. Derlin and others in the command center rushed to Bervin's post. There, they found only the signs of a struggle, but no sign of Bervin himself. Blood was scattered against the far wall of snow, where a large cave-in had occurred. The blood trail followed the shallow trench where Bervin's body had been dragged out of the post and into the icy-cold night of Hoth.



Before long similar calls began to come into the command center. Reports of attacks all along the base's perimeter were reported. All sounded ominously the same: a lone sentry, attacked and dragged off into the night. Efforts were made to ready the base's T-47 airspeeders, but there was no need. The wampas came to them. They came crashing through the carefully-carved ice walls of the facility. The base was soon filled with a hoard of claws and fangs glistening with the blood of fresh kills and the howling of blood-curdling attack roars. The personnel of Echo Base had all faced much worse opposition in the might of the Empire, so they were ready to protect their fortress. They held off the beasts with courage, determination, innovation, and some heavy artillery. The wampas outside the base, having had enough of the Rebels' powerful blaster fire, fled and were never seen again. The creatures inside the base were rounded up with the help of the droids C-3PO and R2-D2. At the heart of each mindless attack was one commonality gone unnoticed until the droids brought it to the attention of Major Derlin. They noticed that the high-pitched beeps of the base's astromech droids drove the wampas into berserker rages. R2-D2 was personally threatened by a wampa. The wampas still inside the base were rounded up by using recordings of astromech droids to drive them out of their dark, icy crevasses. The wampas were stunned into incapacitation, and stored in heavily shielded pens in less vital sections of Echo Base. The pen doors were marked with yellow and orange warning signs, nicknamed by the Rebels as "do not disturb" signs.



"Rebel troops?" "I don't think so, sir."

- Darth Vader and a snowtrooper lieutenant, referring to the group of snowtroopers mauled to death by several wampas

During the desperate haste to escape Echo Base in the face of the Imperial invasion during the Battle of Hoth, C-3PO came upon one of the pen doors while trying to catch up with Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, and Chewbacca on their way to the Millennium Falcon. In an instant, an ancient holdover from one of his previous daring masters took over. Knowing an advance group of snowtroopers was directly behind him, Threepio tore off the warning label and proceeded to disappear around another bend in the corridor. The pursuing troopers reached the door. Their leader punched the controls to slide open the door, knowing locks would take more to stop an Imperial advance. The group marched into the pen with military efficiency, only to be slaughtered by the caged wampas. Once Darth Vader reached the room, all he saw were piles of blood-stained snow, a cave-in exposing the pen to Hoth's daytime sun, and some of his most seasoned, well-trained troops dead on the ground.

Other encounters


Many held to the theory that wampas possessed at least rudimentary intelligence. Through extensive research into the records of other creatures appearing similar to the wampa, evidence had been found suggesting mass coordinated attacks made by the creatures. In some cases, these attacks laid waste to entire outposts of colonists on other worlds. This was later substantiated by the Rebels of Echo Base.

Further research revealed the existence of a certain sub-class of big game hunters who specialized in the "sporting" hunt of large predators like the wampa. Wampa pelts or stuffed heads were prized trophies among hunters. Wampa "souvenirs" and even clothing made of wampa fur had been known to command high prices at galactic trading posts by the time of the Galactic Civil War.

While attemping to escape the planet during the Battle of Hoth, mercenary Dash Rendar encountered several of the Rebels' caged wampas throughout the bowels of Echo Base. He later encountered the Imperial bioengineered cliff wampas near the Imperial Enclave on the moon of Gall while pursuing the bounty hunter Boba Fett.

Skywalker later re-encountered the wampa he wounded with his lightsaber nine years later during a subsequent journey to Hoth. He was once again attacked by the now one-armed beast, who not only survived once more, but recognized the Jedi Master.

On Coruscant, wampas were imported, and promptly migrated to the cooler northern reaches of the planet.

Behind the scenes



 * The wampa was originally played by Des Webb.
 * The creature may have been based on the cryptozoological phenomenon of the "Yeti", or the "Abominable Snowman."
 * Wampas originally played a much more prominent role in early versions of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Final versions of the script depicted a mass-coordinated wampa attack on Echo Base. There were several scenes shot for the film that showed this incident. Additionally, there were shots filmed involving C-3PO tearing a warning sign off the door of a wampa pen, followed by a group of snowtroopers entering the pen only to be attacked by the wampas inside. However, these scenes were later deleted and did not make the final version of the film. For a complete list of these scenes with more details, refer to the List of scenes cut from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Video games



 * Wampas are featured in the "Hunt" mode on Hoth for Star Wars: Battlefront II. The Rebels battle wampas mainly in the open ground behind the base rather than inside Echo Base's narrow corridors. Here, they are much faster than their SOTE counterparts, with their sprint reaching near-Jedi speeds. They kill with one or two swipes of their paws. While running, wampas can "bowl over" Rebels with their shoulder, jump large distances, and produce a shock wave while jumping and attacking. They can even damage and destroy gun turrets with their claws.
 * With the Battlefront II expansion pack it is possible to play as a wampa on Rhen Var, leading to speculation of whether wampas live there.




 * In Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Jaden Korr fights three wampas in his mission to Hoth. One of them is even found inside Echo Base, attacking some tauntauns. They appear to be about twice as tall as the player, easily picking him/her up (to which the player, in an homage to The Empire Strikes Back, can then slice off the arm with their lightsaber to escape). It's also interesting to note that wampa footprints are found on Bakura, but these may be from the bio-engineered cliff wampa.
 * In Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, the wampa is one of a series of wild creatures that attacks any building or unit that comes near it, and cannot be harvested for food. Other creatures such as this include the Sarlacc, Rancor, Krayt Dragon, Acklay, Nexu, and Reek. (The Acklay, Nexu, and Reek are buildable units for the Confederacy of Independent Systems at their Animal Nursery, but are otherwise wild).
 * In Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, wampas can breathe ice. This is probably a game mechanic, but could indicate an otherwise unknown ability, or a new species.
 * Star Wars: Demolition features a single wampa on the Hoth map, who stands on a hill and throws large clumps of snow at passing demolition participants.
 * In Star Wars Trilogy Arcade, in the Hoth level, the player, playing as Han Solo, opens a pen with wampas in it. The Wampas must be killed to proceed.

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * Hunger Pains
 * Ghosts of Hoth
 * Star Wars Infinities: The Empire Strikes Back
 * The Return of Tag & Bink: Special Edition
 * The Secret Tales of Luke's Hand