Kitonak/Legends

Kitonaks were white, pudgy sentients from the harsh Kurdan Desert which covered the planet Kirdo III. Their physiology was an adaptation to their life as desert nomads, while their psychology was notable for their extreme patience and calm. They were also noted for their talent as musicians.

Physiology
Kitonaks had tough skin which folded to seal vulnerable openings, a trait evolved to protect them from the harsh environment of Kirdo III's deserts. They also had some double organs, including two pairs of lungs. Their double lungs could store oxygen, allowing them to hold their breath for up to four hours. Their ears, eyes, and mouth could be sealed, and were almost too small to see. Kitonaks moved slowly, as they walked by expanding and contracting their foot muscles, or slithered slowly in a prone position. Their pudgy-fingered hands were surprisingly dexterous. Their strong feet anchored them during windstorms, while they leaned into the wind with their aerodynamically shaped bodies and heads. In worse storms, when rocks began to fly, they burrowed into the dunes.

Psychology
Kitonaks were very patient, and never rushed. This was because they fed on creatures called chooba, and they had to stand motionless for a long time until a chooba got near them. The nearsighted chooba mistook motionless Kitonaks for sulfaro plants, which chooba often raided in search of fruit or bird eggs. One chooba satisfied a Kitonak's dietary needs for approximately one month.

Even when talking with Humans or other, "faster-paced" aliens, Kitonaks were painfully slow to answer any question. One of the only things to anger them was being hurried. They often would slow down out of spite if someone was making them rush. The only other things which upset them were quicksands and caves. Caves were believed to be gateways to their mythological underworld, and it was said that no Kitonak returned from them. Quicksands, on the other hand, were a more tangible danger on their homeworld, since predatory creatures able to swallow a Kitonak whole lurked within.

Society
Kitonaks lived in nomadic tribes of about one hundred Kitonaks, following migrating chooba herds. Due to their nomadic lifestyle and the tendency for what possessions they had to blow away in windstorms, Kitonak technology was limited to crude, temporary tools and musical instruments. Their tribes were united in a planet-wide participatory democracy, though slow communications and their deliberate thought processes meant that years would pass before decisions were made.

The "Telling of the Story" was the highlight of a Kitonak tribe's day. Each night, the members of the tribe would take turns at storytelling, which each Kitonak adding his or her own details and plot twists. A single story could take several nights to come to a conclusion. These stories taught young Kitonaks the value of patience.

Rain came to their home once every ten years. When this happened, Kitonaks went to the newly full riverbeds for the "Great Celebration of Life", plunging into the riverbeds for the "Dance of Love." At the end of this mating ritual, females would emerge with newborn children. Though this made it seem that Kitonaks had an extremely short gestation period, the opposite was the case: these children were actually conceived years earlier during the previous rainy period's celebration. Young Kitonaks clung close to their mother for the first year of life, eventually becoming strong enough to stand on their own even during windstorms.

By the age of nine, Kitonaks reached full maturity. More adventurous nine-year-olds would leave overpopulated tribes to wander the desert in search of less crowded tribes. These lonely nomads would often make crude chidinkalu flutes from chidinka plants, and play them to while away the nights and attract other Kitonaks. Sometimes, they would be abducted by off-world slave traders and forced them to work as jizz wailers in seedy cantinas. Kitonaks enslaved as laborers usually infuriated their masters by working slowly, and were often freed to work as musicians with their former masters taking their wages until their debt was repaid. (Of course, harsher masters would sometimes kill their Kitonak slaves.)

Some free Kitonak musicians, such as Droopy McCool of the Max Rebo Band, became fairly successful. Other free Kitonaks used their storytelling skills, patience, and the tendency of other beings to think an unmoving Kitonak was asleep or even non-sentient, to become spies and information brokers. Their clients had to learn to be patient, and let them reveal their information slowly and carefully. Some free Kitonaks considered going back to Kirdo III to give their people advanced technology and drive off the slavers, but it took a long time for such Kitonaks to decide to do anything about it.

During the Swarm War period, a Kitonak trained to be a Jedi in the New Jedi Order.

Appearances

 * Shatterpoint
 * The Lost Prince (Star Wars: Droids episode 5, season 1)
 * "Stop That Jawa!", in Star Wars Tales 2
 * "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonite!", in Star Wars Tales 6
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * "And the Band Played On: The Band's Tale", in Tales from Jabba's Palace
 * Republic Commando: Triple Zero
 * Children of the Jedi