Vodran (species)/Legends

"The citizenry also charges you Xim, Son of Xer, with the unjustified decimation of countless peoples and worlds, including Vodran, Jurzuu, and Ko Vari." "Of Vodran I have no recollection."

- Adjudicator Shool and Xim the Despot, in the fictional play Evocar

The Vodrans were a sentient egg-laying reptile species evolved on the planet Vodran, in the Si'Klaata Cluster&mdash;thus sharing homeworld with the parasite known as Dianoga. The Vodrans were anthropomorphic beings, no taller than a Human, but with several physiological differences. These included featureless eyes; hard, leathery skin; underdeveloped facial muscles; and a ring of spikes around the face. While peaceful by nature, Vodrans were good and strong fighters. Most Vodrans considered the benefits of the collective before those of the individual, showing almost no individuality; the few freethinking Vodrans were considered pariahs and rogues.

From before the onset of the Galactic Republic, the Vodrans had been slaves of the Hutts. The legendary Vodran warrior Kl'ieutu Mutela signed his whole species on serfdom through the Treaty of Vontor and, since them, the Hutts imposed their own culture to the Vodrans, erasing any previous civilization. The Vodrans really believed that their partnership with the Hutt was profitable to both parties, and as such the reptilian aliens were ready to sacrifice their own lives, in great numbers, only to keep their Hutt overlord's ostentous lifestyle&mdash;one that the Vodrans did not emulate.

The Hutts initally recruited the Vodrans, along with their neighbor species, the Klatooinians and the Nikto, to fight the forces of Xim the Despot during the Third Battle of Vontor. After the success on Vontor, the three species were kept on retainer by the Hutts, commonly as enforcers or thugs. 21,000 years after this event, the crime lord Bogga the Hutt used Vodran slaves among his troops. The Vodrans proved to be the more loyal slave species to the Hutts, never even attempting a rebellion against their masters. During the times of the Galactic Civil War, the unbalanced Vodran Xenon Nnaksta joined and became an officer of the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Biology and Appearance
Vodran is the name of the sentient species coming from the planet of the same name. The Vodrans were two-legged warm-blooded reptiles, humanoid in shape. Their bodies were covered with leathery skin that could be any shade between olive green and brown. The skin was such a hard covering that it protected the Vodrans from physical damage to a slight extent.

A Vodran's face showed a flat nose and two featureless black eyes. The hard skin of a Vodran, combined with underdeveloped muscles, restricted the range of emotions Vodrans could transmit through facial expressions. A Vodran's face was also ringed by horny protuberances,  creating a ridge of horns.

Vodrans were oviparous beings, with their young being born from egg clutches. Each individual clutch produced two or three Vodrans. These Vodrans began their adolescence at twelve years of age, and were in their prime not before their seventeen year. At that point, the Vodran had reached a height of 1.75 meters, or even 1.80 meters, and could run as fast as a Human. At forty-five, age began to take its toll on a Vodran and, at sixty-five, a Vodran was considered to be old. With an accepted lifespan of eighty years, any Vodran reaching that age was considered to be venerable.

Vodrans were a nimble, sturdy people with acute senses. A number of them were Force-sensitive and could become users of the Force.

Society and Culture
"In fact, just about anyone who had regular dealings with the Hutts has lost credibility&mdash;the Rodians&mdash;except for the Jungle Clans&mdash;Whiphids, Klatoonians, Weequays, Vodrans, Iotrans, Nikto&hellip;"

- Lando Calrissian

Vodrans, having little self image, commonly showed not much individual personality. They instead believed in "the value of many", seeing the whole species as a group. The physiological restrictions they had to express emotion through their faces prompted them to express wishes and emotions using only body language and voice infliections. As they thought of the collective before themselves, they had trouble with advanced social conventions include innuendo and etiquette.

The Vodrans had served the Hutt species as slaves for hundreds of centuries with unswerving loyalty, being probably the most devoted servants Hutts have had. Vodrans belonged to a group of Hutt servants known as the Jungle Clans, also including Klatooinians, Iotrans, Nikto, Weequays and Whiphids. While exceptions existed, the greater majority of Vodrans are absolutely loyal to the Hutt institutions, mostly represented as the kajidics&mdash;Hutt families that are in charge of criminal activities. Vodrans lacked individuality, disliking it when found in a Vodran, and believed in the well-being of their Hutt masters, no matter how many Vodrans had to die to protect their masters' lifestyle. A number of Hutts settled on the planet Vodran and exploited their hard-working Vodran servants to keep up their opulent activities. Vodrans believed that their association with the Hutts had been very fruitful for the Vodran people, and the Vodran individual who made it possible, the warrior Kl'ieutu Mutela, was revered by the Vodrans.

Vodrans had developed their own culture before being contacted by the Hutts. However, as soon as the Hutts began to deal with Vodrans, the Hutts imposed their own culture on the Vodran people, replacing any previously-existing thought. A new mythology was created, suggesting that Vodrans had only existed from the moment they began their service to the Hutts. While this was historically untrue, Vodrans living after 25,098 BBY believed it wholeheartedly, and the Vodran civilization, history and art was adapted to reflect this. The Hutts also replaced the ancient language of the Vodrans with the Hutt tongue, Huttese. Vodrans used Huttese as their native language, although from the times of the Galactic Republic onward, many Vodrans also learned to speak Galactic Basic Standard. The Hutts provided the Vodrans with advanced technology, including hyperdrives, but most Vodrans would not dare travel outside their homeworld without the blessing of their Hutt masters. Besides, many Vodrans had a hard time mastering technology or advanced knowledge.

Reflecting the infrastructure of their Hutt overlords, Vodrans organized themselves in miniature kajidics, or Vodran clans, in which Vodrans lived. Each Vodran clan answered to one Hutt kajidic, and ultimately to the Hutt Clan of Ancients. However, while Hutts are known to take part in many games and fun activities, Vodrans rarely mimic their masters in that aspect. Also unlike Hutts, Vodrans had two-worded names, such as Meido Lycri, Kl'ietu [sic.] Mutela, Lakren Plooru or Saran Vydek.

Vodrans had a deep-rooted respect to authority figures, whether they were Hutts or not. A Vodran would rarely try to obtain power for him or herself. They instead would try to serve the Vodran social institutions and, through them, the greater good. Vodrans valued commitment and consensus, and they expect any individual to accept the ruling of groups. Commonly these groups included a Hutt kajidic, but also a state, clan or union.

A very small number of Vodrans had shown enough individuality to roguely reject their society and its principles, overcoming social conditioning and innate tendence to obey authority. These people tend to be loners, and escaped from their Hutt masters. Other Vodrans consider freethinking Vodrans to be pariahs, outcasts and maniacs. A number of Hutts cared little about losing a useless servant, but others resorted to bounty hunters to track their fugitives.

In general, Vodrans were naïve, peaceful and no-nonsense. However, they commonly served as enforcers, developing combat skills to hone their aggressive potential. Other commonly-learned skills were related to survival in wild, hostile environments, because most Vodrans grew up on Vodran, facing the threat of huge predators roaming at will through steamy jungles and swamps. A number of Vodrans developed a mild psychosis that made them fearless and daredevilish.

History
The exhuberant planet Vodran, full of steamy jungles and swamps, was also rich in scavengers and in huge flesh-eating predators. Local species had to evolve quickly to avoid extinction in such a hostile environment. For instance, the Dianoga learned to change color, to hide in the depths and to live from the remains those big predators left behind. A local species of insect-eating reptiles living in the colossal trees instead developed intelligence as a survival tool: These primitive Vodrans learned to hunt and work together and to build settlements in the treetops. They unexpectedly managed to thrive in conditions that would have killed many other species. The Vodrans developed a civilization of fisherbeings and dianoga hunters who used hanging trees to capture dianoga and spinefish from their thatched huts over the river.

Xim Wars
The planet Vodran happened to be only one of the many inhabited worlds in the Si'Klaata Cluster of the area of the galaxy later known as the Outer Rim Territories. Around 25,100 BBY, the Hutts and a powerful ruler known as Xim&mdash;sometimes Xim the Despot&mdash; waged a war for the control of the Cluster. The Hutt leader General Kossak Inijic Ar'durv the Mighty rallied the Hutt forces and battled Xim in a ritual combat over the planet Vontor. The Hutts used Vontor for cultural purposes, but the planet happened to be rich in the then-scarce kiirium ore, and Xim happened to know the secrets to use kiirium as a laser-resistant armor for his starships. Kossak used the veins as a bait, and defeated Xim.

Nonetheless, Xim refused to respect the armistice. He rebuilt his fleet and began movements of conquest on Hutt space. Xim's recently-finished war ships were sent to the Si'Klaata Cluster, were they raided the planets Kintan, Klatooine and Vodran, which was near the frontier of the Cluster. &mdash; even if the inhabitants had not had contact with the Hutts by this point. The primitive Vodrans only understood that fire was raining from the skies and that their huts had been destroyed. Unable to counterattack, the Vodrans started rebuilding the huts as they had been.

During the following year, Kossak battled Xim again on Vontor, with both belligerents suffering heavy losses. While Xim was officially defeated, he nonetheless used the Battle to obtain a cargo of kiirium and, fearing Hutt reprisals, decided to fight Kossak a third time. But Kossak's forces were in condition to meet Xim's again. The Hutt decided he needed to recruit one new species to use as soldiers. Kossak sent his three most trusted ambassadors to the planets of the Cluster that had been raided by Xim, looking for powerful allies who could fight for the Hutts.

Kossak's first-spawn, Dojundo the Hutt, led the ambassy to Vodran, and discovered the hut-building primitives still recovering from Xim's attack. The Hutts used old language convertor lexicons to talk with these locals. The superstitious Vodrans, in awe of the flaming, flying vehicles and advanced technology of the Hutts, mistakenly believed the Hutts to be demi-gods, god-like demons, or terrible gods. Anyway, in fear, they bowed to their will and swore to fight against the enemies of the Hutt in exchange for the secrets of the Hutt's "star-magic."

Kossak's other envoys recruited the Klatooinians from Klatooine and, later,   the Nikto from Kintan. Before the Battle, the Hutts had forged the Treaty of Vontor, a contract binding the three species of the Cluster in eternal servitude,  or as permanently indentured servants, to the Hutts. Barada M'Beg signed for the Klatooinians, D'we'nouk did for the Nikto, and the greatest Vodran warrior, Kl'ieutu Mutela, signed for his species. Xim, unaware of the Hutts' new allies, prepared his janissaries and his new legions of Guardian Corps of reportedly-invincible laser-resistant war-robots. Xim intended to deploy all of his forces on Vontor for a last battle, hoping to overwhelm and defeat the Hutts once and for all.

In 25,098 BBY, Kossak gathered his fleets on Vontor and Xim sent his troops to the surface in massive landing barges. He did not expect to find one million Klatooinians, Nikto and Vodrans waiting for them on the surface, along with a number of Weequays. While Xim was sending his warships against Kossak's, the Vodrans and their new companions destroyed most of Xim's war-robots    and then wrecked Xim's orbital platforms by bombing them. Xim's fleet was destroyed in orbit except for a few ships that escaped with the last war robots.

The Klatooinian skald Pupaku wrote a deeply-moving memorial on the Battle that, while frequently reprinted, is considered imprecise by scholars in terms of numbers. Pupaku mentioned that the battle took 2.5 years and involved a 25% of the inhabitants and robots in the galaxy. He also provided an elegy on the so-called warriors of the Si'Klaata Cluster, including Klatooinian, Nikto, Vodran and Weequay brothers-in-arms. The warriors resorted to spice-induced berserk rage to not withdraw when the robots approached. The warriors then took the robots to the underground of Vontor to dismantle them, one by one, even as the warriors themselves were killed. The warrior's sacrifice turned the tide of the battle: Xim's organic high-ranking officers understood then that Xim could be defeated, and they mutinied. In further generations, historians could not confirm Pupaku's words, and as such part or all of this tribute to the fallen soldiers could easily be a mere boast.

What is sure is that the Third Battle of Vontor meant Xim's final defeat to the Hutts, and that the Klatooinian, Nikto and Vodran army was essential for that outcome. The Vodrans still perceived the Battle as some sort of holy war involving weird beings, new weapons and magical items that were awarded to them.

After Xim
Once Xim had been defeated, the Hutts included the planet Vodran, and the whole Cluster, in their empire, later known as Hutt Space. The Vodrans started serving their new Hutt masters with loyalty, and the Hutts used the Vodrans, along with other indentured species, as enforcers, bodyguards and lackeys to keep their control over Hutt Space. The Hutts also erradicated the Vodran culture and replaced it with beliefs more productive to them &mdash; including the false idea of the Vodrans existing only from the very moment they started serving the Hutts. Eventually, Hutt Space had contact with a wider power, the Galactic Republic; the Hutts then used the Vodrans and their other slaves to build a criminal empire for themselves within the borders of the Republic. As far as the Vodrans were concerned, they thought they had gained a lot by their association with the Hutts, and they started revering Mutela for signing the Treaty.

Circa 671 BBY, the thirteen-act theatrical play Evocar, written by Direus'pei the Hutt, was posthumously published by his Nikto scribe Ro Vacca. This fiction introduced Xim as a sympathetic character that prompted slaves to rebel against their Hutt masters. In the third chapter, Xim was judged by the Hutt and he was charged with murdering people of several worlds, including Vodrans; Xim replied then that he did not recall Vodran at all. While the Hutts tried to restrict access to Evocar, it did inspire several species enslaved by the Hutts, including Evocii, Klatooinian and Nikto, to stage rebellions in real life. The Vodrans, however, appeared to spurn the play.

While Niktos and Klatooinians showed further attempts of rebellion against the Hutts throughout the millenia, Vodrans did not. Through the years, Hutt inter-clan rivalries commonly exploded as brush-fire wars among the species serving the Hutts, including the Vodrans. Around the first years of the Galactic Empire, an urban rising known as The Thruncon Insurrection destroyed most of the Vodran cities and killed several Vodrans soon before the start of the Galactic Civil War.

During the times of the Galactic Empire, a Vodran was officially recognized as a sentient being, being legally allowed to own and manage a corporation. Later, after the Alliance to Restore the Republic started military activities against the Empire, the renegade sentientologist Tem Eliss travelled to Hutt Space to study all the species indentured to the Hutts, including the Vodrans, to prove his hypothesis related to millenia of genetic and cultural eugenics.

The Galactic Empire made an attempt to seize the planet Vodran and rule the Vodran species, but the commonly peaceful Vodrans opposed this takeover. As a consequence, the Vodran population was slaughtered, with only a small percentage of Vodrans surviving. When the anti-Imperial New Republic was created in 4 ABY, most Vodrans offered their support to it, although they clearly stated that the Vodrans' first allegiance was to the Hutts.

A later conflict known as the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion prompted the Hutts to maneuver trying to outsmart the Yuuzhan Vong species. The discovery of the Hutts' measures was damaging to their reputation. Once the war was over, species associated with the Hutts lost prestige and credibility to the greater galaxy, except for the Vodrans and the other Jungle Clans.

Vodrans in the galaxy
Vodrans commonly dealt with the galaxy only through the Hutts: Vodrans rarely travelled without the authorization or order of their Hutts masters. Commonly, other species saw Vodrans as enforcers and thugs representing interests of Hutts. Vodrans were rarely seen beyond the area controlled by the Hutts. Hutts sometimes sold Vodran slaves to other criminals and this was the only moment a Vodran was seen outside Hutt Space. The planet Vodran had no willing export, but Dianogas had spred through the galaxy in larval stage for millenia without the Vodran's consent.

In 4,000 BBY, number of Vodrans served, along with several Klatoonians, Nikto and Weequays, as the many boarding troops and crew hands to the crimelord Bogga the Hutt. Grimorg, Bogga's Weequay chief enforcer, had the unenviable job of keeping control over all of them.

The infamous and individualistic Vodran Xenon Nnaksta, born on the Kudor province of Vodran, rejected the Vodran traditions and became first the manager and owner of the Greel Wood Logging Corporation, then a survival expert, and lastly a member of the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Promoted to Lieutenant, Nnaksta joined the undercover Eclipse Team and was still an officer during the days of the New Republic. Nnaksta was also a victim of a slight dementia, particularly noticeable because he drove with risky stunts and because he used a tree-felling vibro-saw as his weapon of choice.

Behind the scenes
The planet Vodran was first mentioned in the role-playing guide Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope (First Edition) (1989), written for West End Games Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. A character named Nnaksta first appeared in Wanted by Cracken, a section written by C. Robert Carey and published in Star Wars Adventure Journal #4 (April of 1994), but Nnaksta's species was not specified at this point. Another article from a later issue of the same magazine, also written by Carey, The Greel Wood Haven in Star Wars Adventure Journal #6 (May of 1995), detailed that Nnaksta was named Xenon Nnaksta and was a Vodran from the planet Vodran &mdash; mentioning and describing the species by first time. It also included the first illustration of a Vodran, as drawn by David Day. Later that year, Galaxy Guide 12: Aliens — Enemies and Allies (September of 1995) provided a full description of the Vodrans written by Pablo Hidalgo, as well as a new image of them by Mike Vilardi.

Galaxy Guide 12 also included special role-playing rules for the Vodrans: Vodrans loyal to the Hutts had a bonus to their willpower to resist betraying their masters; players could role-play loyal Vodrans having this bonus, or outcast Vodrans not having it. A further role-playing guide written for Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Roleplaying Game and published in 2003, Ultimate Alien Anthology, adapted this rule: Loyal Hutts still had a loyalty bonus whenever someone attempted to blackmail or seduce them; but non-loyal Hutts had instead a bonus to their Intelligence statistics. Another difference between those two books was in the height of an adult Vodran: Galaxy Guide 12 and The Essential Guide to Alien Species talked about 1.80 meters while Anthology reduced the number to 1.75 meters.

Lastly, Galaxy Guide 12 says that the Hutts made the Vodrans sign into eternal servitude after their victory in the Third Battle of Vontor. However, the time line in page x of The Essential Guide to Alien Species (2001) mentions the Treaty being signed before the Hutts defeating Xim. The Essential Guide to Droids says that the Hutts and the Vodrans "made a pact" before the Battle&mdash;although the Treaty is not mentioned by name, and the pact could be a different agreement not related to eternal servitude. The New Essential Chronology says that "two more battles followed [meaning Second and Third Battles of Vontor], but by that point, the Hutts had forged the Treaty of Vontor." It does not specify whether it was signed before or after the Battle.

Appearances

 * Knight Errant
 * The Unifying Force

Notes and references
Vodraner vodran