Ewok/Legends

''This article is about the Ewok species. See also Ewoks (cartoon) for the cartoon series about their adventures.''

Ewoks were sentient furred bipeds native to the Forest Moon of Endor who helped the Rebel Alliance defeat the forces of the Galactic Empire in the Battle of Endor.

General info
Ewoks were curious individuals that stood about one meter tall; they were omnivorous and used spears, slings, and knives as weapons; they also used hang gliders, battle wagons, and bordoks as vehicles. Ewoks had large, bright eyes, small black noses, and hands that possesed two fingers and an opposable thumb.

Although extremely skilled in forest survival and the construction of primitive technology like gliders and catapults, the Ewoks had yet to progress past stone-level technology when discovered by the Empire. They were quick learners, however, when exposed to advanced technology with simple mechanical processes and concepts. Some Ewoks were removed form their planet and taken as pets or slaves.

Tree Village
Most Ewoks lived high among the trees of the forest moon, in villages built between the closely spaced trees. The basic design of a tree village had a "Central Village" of thatched-roof huts on the primary limbs. These huts were high enough above the ground to be out of reach from predators. Suspended bridges connected the gaps between trees, adjoining distant huts. Knotted rope ladders allowed access up or down.

In most tree cities, the village Elders ordered the largest huts built directly on the trunk of the tree. These central buildings belonged to the chief of the tribe. The chief used the largest open areas for village gatherings, meetings, council fires, and storytelling ceremonies.

Family groups kept their own dwellings in clusters on the outlying trees. Seperate huts were also built for unmarried females, elders, and visitors. A sealed building was also created higher than the rest of the tree city and was used as the communities food storage.

Lake Village
Ewoks also built homes on shallow, placid lakes. The lake Ewoks built their villages on stilts out in the water. The sorrounding water protected the Ewoks from large predators. These Ewoks got most of their food by setting wicker traps to catch fish in the lake. The older Ewoks spent their time harvesting marsh grasses and drying them in the sun. They then took these dry grasses and made them into mats, clothing, baskets, and decorative tapestries. The young Ewoks loved to splash in the water and dig in the mud for buried shellfish.

These Ewoks also had seemed to have built wooden sail boats and oars.

Cliff Village
Some tribes of Ewoks made their homes on a rock face beside a spraying waterfall. Ewok engineers created an intricate set of waterwheels, driven by the force of the waterfall. These waterwheels drove large wooden gears that rotated grindstones, operated conveyor belts from one side of the village to the other, and ran a set of wooden elevator platforms that moved up and down the cliff.

Hunting and Trapping
Ewoks ventured to the forest floor to hunt, and set traps to catch various prey. The Ewoks considered themselves great hunters. A single hunter could snare small animals but an entire Ewok hunting party could catch animals as large as a boar-wolf. The Ewoks had created effective ways to hunt these monstrous animals using spears and poison darts. The Ewoks first set up a trap with scraps of bloody meat from a previous hunt and then they would set a vine net on the forest floor. When the wolf ran towards the meat, it would get caught in the net. Then, from the underbrush, the Ewok warriors charged at the trapped wolf. One of these boar-wolves would provide enough meat to feed an Ewok village for days.

Smaller game were killed with small sling nets. When a creature stepped into a loop it set off a pressure trap. A pinned sapling would break free and fling the animal into the nearest tree. Tek swee was a trap traslated into Basic as "head hitter". This trap was a common defense against the Gorax. When a Gorax attempted to raid a Ewok village, the Ewok warriors would let loose a massive log roped onto trees. The log would swing into the Gorax like a giant battering ram.

Another food source for the Ewoks were mattberries that they squeezed for juice. These juices were mixed with water and fermented into a bitter brew.

Religion
For the forest dwellers, the surrounding giant trees played an important cultural role. These hunter-gatherers were a deeply spiritual people. They believed themselves to be descendants of the Great Tree, a sacred tree in the forests. The Ewok religion was based on superstition. Many religious ceremonies were arranged to please various gods of weather, trees, the hunt, eingineering prowess, and fertility. There were also darker spirits that symbolized the dangers of the forest. The Ewoks held magnificent festivals of rain sun, spring flowers, and fruits. There were also "Dark Rituals" involving bloody sacrifices. The rituals were held at night under the light of burning bonfires. The shamans tossed the leaves of herbs into the fire that caused the Ewoks to have vivid dreams.

Shamans
Ewery village appointed its own male or female mystic/shaman. The shaman was usually the village con-artist. The shaman made up answers about what the gods wanted and how they could be pleased. For the shaman to do this, the village gave the shaman anything he or she may have wanted, including crystals, shells, polished skulls and other treasures the shaman found interesting. Many shamans wore large animal skulls on their heads.

Shamans pretended to be great healers and they applied vile-smelling herbal medicines. Many types of fungus, lichens, roots, berries, flowers, epiphytes, and bark also had minimal medicinal effect.

Totem Trees
The massive conifer trees that filled the forest moon were called totem trees or lifetrees by the Ewoks. The Ewoks had a deep and superstitious connection with these trees. For every baby Ewok born, a new seedling was planted by the village. Throughout that Ewoks life, he or she was linked to that "totem tree". When the Ewok died, it was believed their spirit would go to live inside their own totem tree.

In times of crisis, the village shamans would attempt to contact the ancient spirits that lived within the oldest trees for advice and guidance. The shamans insisted that it was a private ritual. The Ewoks never questioned the sacred advice brought back by the shamans, though they had never heard these ancient voices before.

Deities
The Ewoks worshipped a massve pantheon of gods that included the following spirits:


 * Great spirit of the forest
 * Light spirit
 * Night spirit
 * Batcheela
 * Boozie
 * Brother sky
 * Ceel
 * Deej
 * Chituhr
 * Denlett
 * Ephram
 * Fashkaa
 * Flitchee
 * Galeer
 * Grael
 * Heesh
 * Hexprax
 * Ilbath
 * Jahjee
 * Kazak
 * Leeni
 * Mopiee
 * Oosa
 * Oshlin
 * Rabin
 * Ralee
 * Rillish

Tribal Structure
The tribal structure of the Ewoks had a Council of Elders ruling over each village, headed by a chief. A medicine man also lived in the Ewok village, a keeper of mystical lore, and a healer to the injured. The warriors of the different tribes wore raggedy garments on the head to signify the Ewoks tribe. The warriors also wore wooden chest shields, the jawbones of tiny animals, and sharp teeth. Some decorated themselves with ornaments such as feathers, necklaces, and pendants, making their body look like a clutter of trinkets.

Prominent members of Ewok tribes carried totems to symbolize their rank. The lead warrior wore a headdress made of feathers called the "white wings of hope". The oldest son of the tribal leaders family wore a headdress called the "red wings of courage". The second son wore the "blue wings of strength".

Marriage
Unmarried male Ewoks spent much of their time living alone in the forest building their own small huts near enough to the tree city to assist the Ewoks in work. Unmarried females would leave gifts of food, clothing, or weaponry on the door-steps of unmarried males as a sign of their attraction and to tell how much the village missed them and wished they would come back as part of a family and as the female's mate.

If the male Ewok decided to take a mate, he had to build a family hut in the tree city where he and his mate could live. The construction of a new hut signaled that the male had decided to take a mate, all of the unmarried females tryed to woo him. Until his home was finshed, the male did not decide whom he was taking. The chosen female had the right to refuse the male or the hut he had built.

Children
Ewoks were very closely attatched to their fuzzy children called woklings. An entire Ewok village fawned over newborn babies. They always gave the children much attention and they considered the care of their children a shared responsibility. Woklings had few rights and the children had to learn many rituals and legends that would serve as moral guides throughout their lives. When the Ewok came of age, he or she attended the Festival of Hoods. This festival marked the trasition from Wokling to Ewok.

Tribal Games
The "Tribal Games" were a series of games that Ewoks from scattered tribes came to play. There was much dancing and storytelling but there were also event far more dangerous. Tree-jumping was a very popular game among young Ewoks. The Ewok would climb to the highest lifetree and leap off the highest limb. They had to catch themselves on the lower limbs until the descended all the way to the ground. If a Ewok missed, he could be seriously injured.

Music
The Ewoks enjoyed tribal ceremonies and singing and playing music on drums of all kinds. These drums were used during celebrations, festivals, and rituals.

History
When the Empire began operations on the moon of Endor, they dismissed the primitive species as harmless. Imperial operations were situated around the area near the Ewok village led by Chief Chirpa. Princess Leia, part of a Rebel strike team, befriended the Ewok Wicket W. Warrick, a scout from said village.

These Ewoks also erroneously worshipped the protocol droid C-3PO, thinking he was a god. Threepio told the Council of Elders the adventures of the Rebel heroes Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. The Ewoks accepted the Rebels into their tribe, and allied themselves to their cause. The Ewoks helped in the ground battle to destroy the Imperial shield generator on the forest floor, and their primitive weapons felled the stormtroopers and the scout walkers of the Empire. This assist paved the way for the destruction of the Death Star II and the Rebel victory at the Battle of Endor. Later that night, the Ewoks held a huge celebration that could be heard throughout the forest.

What happened to them after the days of the Empire is a subject of much debate and their fate remains obscure. References are made of some kind of extinction that befell their race but on the other hand, these are deemed as Imperial propaganda. Whatever happened to the main population, Ewoks outside the system would establish that the race did not extinct.

Language
See Ewokese

Behind the Scenes
George Lucas intended that a primitive race should overthrow the Empire in the final episode, and had originally planned to use Wookiees, but decided against it after it had been established that Chewbacca was proficient with technology. His answer was to create a new race called Ewoks, which is "Wookiee" with the syllables reversed.

It is believed that Ewoks are modelled after Hobbits, the short and easily overlooked people who caused the dark lord Sauron's demise in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Lucas chose the word Endor for the moon's planet to honour this, since it is the Elvish name of Middle-earth, the setting of most of Tolkien's stories.

Fan reaction
Many fans of the Star Wars series dislike the Ewoks, believing that the scenes with them defeating an legion of the Emperor's best Stormtroopers stretch credibility even for a space opera, and that their cuteness was purely an attempt to introduce opportunities for merchandising rather than a serious addition to the story&mdash;criticism repeated nearly twenty years later about Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace. Furthermore, despite the fact that the word "Ewok" is never uttered or mentioned in Return of the Jedi, everyone knows their name, providing additional ammo to those that believe them to be a product of the shrewd merchandising and marketing teams at Lucasfilm.

The later television appearances of the Ewok tribe from Return of the Jedi &mdash; the cartoon series Ewoks (1985 – 1987) and two TV specials, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984) and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985) &mdash; are not always considered part of Star Wars canon by fans, although Cindel Towani, a character from the TV movies, has appeared in the later novel Tyrant's Test.

Fate
Some fans have argued that the Ewoks may have been driven to near-extinction due to environmental devastation resulting from the destruction of the second Death Star. This is supported in some cases, which in turn are counter-attacked. This case remains obscure and is known as the Endorian Holocaust.

Appearances

 * Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
 * Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
 * Ewoks (cartoon)
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi