Sanyassan

The Sanyassans were a barbaric humanoid species from the planet Sanyassa IV. They had ape-like faces, scaly gray skin, and were on average over two meters tall.

History
Around 100 BBY, a group of Sanyassan space pirates, the Marauders, who were criminals and pariahs even among their own race, hijacked a spacecraft. Unable to operate their advanced vessel, they crash-landed on the forest moon of Endor.

There, they built themselves a fortress, ruling over a section of the Endorian plains. These Sanyassans armed themselves with poorly maintained blasters and more conventional weapons. With these weapons, they were the only species on Endor with advanced technology.

They used both horses and large reptilian blurrgs for transportation. Their leader was King Terak, who was assisted by the rogue Dathomirian Nightsister Charal. The commander of the Marauder troops was General Yavid, who formulated the battle strategies which kept the Marauders' lands from being overrun.

The Marauders were perpetual enemies of the Ewoks, whose villages they frequently raided. At at least one point in time, they were also enemies of the Phlogs and the Duloks. They also clashed with Morag the Tulgah witch, although Yavid did orchestrate a tentative peace with her &mdash; the precise timing, circumstances, and duration remain as yet unknown.

When the Marauders captured a shipwrecked scout named Salek Weet, they misunderstood Weet's references to the power generator for his ship. Thinking he was talking about a mystical power source that could make the Marauders rulers of the Galaxy, the Marauders imprisoned and eventually killed Weet in an attempt to learn the secret of this power.

Many years later, during a raid on an Ewok village, the Marauders captured many Ewoks including Wicket W. Warrick. They also captured Cindel Towani, killed the rest of her family, and stole the crystal oscillator from the Towani's damaged spaceship. Wicket and Cindel soon escaped, finding their way to the home of Noa Briqualon, Weet's partner. Warrick and Briqualon's friend Teek helped the two stranded Humans defeat the Marauders, retrieve the parts needed to repair Briqualon and Weet's spaceship, and kill Terak. And with her ring destroyed, Charal was trapped in her raven form.

In this power vacuum General Yavid tried to take the Marauder throne. But he was not able to match Terak's feat of keeping order over such a rabble, and the Marauders turned on one another, foiling Yavid's bid for power. Yet this civil war was apparently not the end of the Marauders: for Terak's son, the physically similar and equally brutal Zakul, eventually emerged victorious, reestablished order, and became King.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Galaxies
 * Ewoks: The Battle for Endor