Skandit

Skandits were a species of small, sentient bipeds with furred bodies, gangly limbs, and squat, compact torsos. Although the black fur around their eyes looked like a mask, the rest of the body was gray. A large group of Skandits lived in the forests of Endor, where they used slingshots, whips, and batons to ambush unsuspecting caravans of Ewoks and other species. Skandits spoke a noisy, chittering language.

In 3 ABY, a group of Skandits ambushed a party of Ewoks from Bright Tree Village, separated them from their wagon of goods, and imprisoned the travelers. That same day, the Travelling Jindas arrived in the Skandits' home and arranged to perform for the masked marauders. When the Skandits discovered that a few Jindas had helped the Ewoks prisoners escape, the show came to a close as the Skandits attacked the strangers. Nevertheless, the Jindas and Ewoks managed to escape.

Biology and appearance
The Skandits were a species of sentient, furry bipeds with squat, pudgy bodies and thin, lanky limbs. Their two legs were wide-set, giving them a bowlegged gait. They had three fingers on each hand, but they had no toes. Each Skandit had a long, bushy tail that narrowed to a pointed tip. With the exception of the fur around the eyes, Skandits were covered in gray fur. This was short on most areas of the body, but it grew longer on the cheeks and on top of the head. Skandits stood about 0.4 to 0.5 meters tall.

Each Skandit had two white eyes under an expressive brow. These contrasted the mask-like band of black fur that grew around each eye and around the back of the head. A long, narrow muzzle jutted out below this mask, ending in a dark, round nose. This snout contained a red tongue and a few sharp teeth, some of which poked outside the mouth even when it was closed. Two pointed ears stood at either side of the head; these sometimes stood erect, although they often flopped over as well.

Society and culture
"Welcome, Skandits! Welcome to the greatest show this side of Endor. You like nuts? Well, we are nuts!"

- Bondo, introducing the Travelling Jindas' stage show

Skandits inhabited the forests of Endor; at least one large band lived in a forest clearing on the moon. They tied brown capes around their necks but otherwise wore no clothing. The species' weaponry included a type of wooden baton with a single, white, round head tied onto one end; this was wielded two-handed like a spear or thrown as a projectile. Skandits also fought with whips and slingshots. Their diet included nuts.

Members of the species formed raiding parties to ambush caravans of unwary travelers. The Skandits first got into position by hiding in the treetops of their target's projected path. Then, in one of their species' favorite pursuits, the raiders dropped from their elevated positions with their capes acting as ad hoc gliders. The Skandits initially overwhelmed the surprised target with their sheer numbers; Skandits grappled and bit their victims en masse, keeping the targets isolated from one another. Once their victims surrendered, the Skandit raiding party marched them back to the Skandit settlement and interned them in cells dug out of the earth within the root system of trees in the area. These cells were secured with carved, oval-shaped wooden doors on hinges, which allowed the prisoners to see out through vertical wooden cross bars. Despite their fierce demeanor, Skandits could be frightened; they tended to freeze up in such conditions.

Despite their propensity to attack non-Skandits, communities of the species did receive certain visitors peacefully; they allowed the Travelling Jindas to perform for them in 3 ABY, for example. The Skandits were noisy creatures, and they spoke a fast-paced language of chitters, growls, and screeches in their high-pitched voices.

History
"What are you doing? You led us right on stage!" "It's OK. The Skandits are afraid of us. See? Let's have some fun!"

- Kneesaa and Wicket try to escape from a Skandit prison

Raids and aggression earned the Skandits of Endor a negative reputation among the Ewoks of the Forest Moon. One group of Skandits eventually took up residence in a forest clearing, where they maintained dugout prisons beneath giant trees.

In 3 ABY, members of this Skandit band detected a bordok-pulled Ewok cart being driven through the forest. The Skandits took their positions in the trees above the cart's path and waited for it to come within striking distance. When it did, they dropped from the trees using their capes to glide onto the cart and its Ewok riders. They overwhelmed their targets and captured them, scaring the Ewoks' bordok off in the process. The Skandits marched their quarries back to the Skandit's hideout in the woods. The captured Ewoks&mdash;Latara, Paploo, Teebo, Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka, and the Warrick brothers Weechee, Widdle, and Wicket&mdash;were thrown into one of the Skandits' root-cellar prisons.

Soon thereafter, a group of wandering Jindas arrived. Their leader, Bondo, announced the group as the Travelling Jindas and asked to perform for the Skandits that evening in exchange for food and lodging. The Skandits agreed. During the performance, the assembled Skandits watched transfixed, leaving only a pair of guards to watch over the Ewok prisoners. A female Jinda dancer and a magician named Trebla charmed the guards, causing them to fall asleep. The Jindas then smuggled the Ewoks past the Skandit audience in a long costume designed to be worn by several beings at once. This monstrosity mounted the stage, appearing to the audience as a frightening sight. The Ewok Wicket W. Warrick took pleasure in the fear he could strike in his former captors, but his antics made the costume fall apart and revealed the Ewoks hiding inside it. The Skandits became enraged and pursued the escapees, but the Jindas and Ewoks loaded their things quickly and escaped into the forest.

Behind the scenes
Writer Bob Carrau created the Skandits for "The Curse of the Jindas," an episode of the Nelvana Star Wars: Ewoks animated cartoon. Their only appearance, the episode originally aired on October 19, 1985. In the cartoon, the high-pitched, chittering voices of the Skandits are played by an uncredited voice artist.

Several sources describe the Skandits as "squirrellike." The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia does not capitalize the species' name, but this is inconsistent with other sources.

No source has definitively established a Skandit homeworld, making their ultimate origins unclear. Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds implies that only Ewoks and Yuzzums are native to the Forest Moon. "Castaways of Endor" adds only Duloks to this list and implies that all other sentients on Endor have been introduced from other worlds. According to "Endor and the Moddell Sector," such introductions were relatively common due to the dual navigational hazards of a massive gravity shadow and a shield of space debris that crashed countless starships on the moon. Still, the notion that the Skandits were one of these "castaway" species&mdash;or that they were native to Endor&mdash;cannot be definitively supported by available source material.