User talk:Eyrezer/Sandpit

Biology and appearance
The bafforr trees had crystalline trunks, with bark smoother than glass. Bafforr branches formed a sharp, interlocking web. The bafforr trees were aquamarine in color, although paler than the surrounding forests on Ithor. Some bafforr trees also had black leaves. Sapling bafforr trees looked like inverted cones, and were colored a lighter blue than its more mature counterparts.

Behaviour and intelligence
"I seem to remember something about the Mother Jungle summoning certain Ithorians. It's a rare calling that no one can explain. They leave everything behind and live in the wilderness, forbidden to return to their eco-cities. In a way, they become fugitives. Since the Ithorians consider it such sacrilege to touch the forest, the calling must be pretty strong."

- Wedge Antilles

The bafforr trees had a form of collective sentience: the sum of numerous brains working in concert toward a common purpose, similar to the bivalvic Knowledge Bank of the water-planet Dac. As a consequence, the greater the number of trees forming part of the collective, the more intelligent the trees became. Bafforr forests therefore ranged from semi-sentient to fully sentient. The bafforr forests ruled benevolently over all the rest of the forests' organisms, which included such flora as the indyup tree, donar flower and bull-fern, and fauna such as the manollium bird, shamarok flitter and the arrak snake.

Evolution
The Ithorians, a sentient, ambulatory species that also inhabited Ithor, worshipped the bafforr forests. The advent of repulsorlift technology allowed the Ithorians to withdraw from the planet's surface, considering it sacrilegious to touch the forest. However, some Ithorians broke this religious mandate, believing that "Mother Jungle," a spiritual entity thought to embody the verdant, tropical ecology of Ithor, had summoned them to live on the planet's surface. Such Ithorians became ecological priests, tending to the bafforr forests. They were considered renegades by the rest of Ithorian society, which forbid them from returning to the Ithorian Herdships.

During the Great Sith War, Mandalorian Wars and Jedi Civil War, a massive Galactic Republic fleet is stationed over Ithor; however, Sith saboteurs caused at least two Ithorian herdships to crash into Ithor's jungles, leading the Ithorians to withdraw slightly from the war efforts.

Cathor Hills
The Ithorians were neutral for much of the Galactic Civil War; however, following the Battle of Yavin, the Galactic Empire sent an Imperial-class Star Destroyer to Ithor and garrisoned the planet, attracted by the Ithorian expertise in cloning and genetic engineering. During a siege of the planet, Imperial captain Alima was determined to get access to the Ithorians technology and so ordered the partial incineration of one of the many sentient forests on Ithor. That particular forest, known as the "Cathor Hills," was located on a eponymous geographical feature considered sacred by the Ithorians. Thousands of bafforr trees were killed as the large grove was partially incinerated by the Star Destroyer; the large, dark, cylindrical, felled trunks lasted for many years, appearing like tubes of burned transparisteel. That act of violence prompted many Ithorians to clandestinely support the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Something about Momaw Nadon. Seven black-leaved bafforr trees were brought out to Tatooine by Nadon, although one was killed by Alima. Rumored to be hidden in the mountains south of the city of Mos Eisley.

By 11 ABY, the Cathor Hills forest had started to recover, tended by a group of four Ithorian renegades, although numerous ruined trees still remained. New Republic General Wedge Antilles took the Omwati scientist to view the Cathor Hills, explaining the dynamic between the Ithorians and bafforr trees to the sheltered woman.

The following year, in 12 ABY, one of the five-yearly Ithorian Herd Meets was held at Ithor, with dozens of Herdships floating only meters above the canopies of extensive bafforr forests. That meeting was interrupted by an attack by a crazed individual on New Republic guest of honor, Han Solo.

Yuuzhan Vong invasion
"Bafforr tree pollen shows promise as an allergen that affects the armor, but it will be some time before the pollen can be synthesized in the amounts needed to serve as an effective deterrent or biological agent. Still, each encounter has furnished us with additional data as to their weak points&mdash;psychological, anatomical, and social."

- Joi Eicroth

"Alpha Red is the name of a Yuuzhan Vong-specific poison developed by Chiss scientists and Dif Scaur's Intelligence gang. From what I know about it-and I don't know a lot-the starting point was bafforr tree pollen, and the bioweapon just kept growing from there."

- Kyp Durron

However, the forces of the New Republic and then the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances were never able to replicate the bafforr pollen, and so it failed to deliver the military advantage that had been hoped for. It did, however, serve as the starting point for the development of Alpha Red.

By Legacy era, Ithorians are starting to restore Ithor with traditional techniques, eschewing vongforming techniques.

Appearances

 * Coruscant Nights II: Street of Shadows
 * The Storm's Edge
 * The Sand Tender: The Hammerhead's Tale
 * Star Wars Missions 7: Ithorian Invasion
 * Galaxy of Fear: Spore
 * Dark Apprentice
 * Children of the Jedi
 * Dark Tide II: Ruin
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * The Final Prophecy
 * The Unifying Force

To check

 * Star Wars: The Official Starships & Vehicles Collection 22
 * Star Wars: The Official Starships & Vehicles Collection 36
 * Ultimate Alien Anthology
 * Rebellion Era Sourcebook
 * The Official Star Wars Fact File 26
 * Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide
 * The Clone Wars Campaign Guide
 * Legacy Era Campaign Guide
 * The Clone Wars Campaign Guide
 * Legacy Era Campaign Guide