Kilmaulsi

"Squaawk!"

- A Kilmaulsi thug attacking Dass Jennir

The Kilmaulsi were sentient avians indigenous to the planet Kilmaulsias. While they possessed no wings, they had colorful ruffs of feathers under their jaws and along their arms. Members of the species were curious but devout by nature, leading their tribal society to become strongly religious. Originally a warlike species, they ended numerous intertribal conflicts upon being introduced to space travel by the Vorzydiaks. Once introduced into the galaxy, the Kilmaulsi became common as guards and soldiers, particularly throughout the Vorzyd Cluster, where their homeworld was located. The Jedi Dass Jennir encountered a Kilmaulsi on the planet Cato Neimoidia in 19 BBY, and Rebel agents Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker ran into a Kilmaulsi working as a guard on the world Vorzyd V during the Galactic Civil War.

Biology and appearance
The Kilmaulsi were a sentient species of digitigrade humanoids descended from avians. While the species had lost their ancestor's wings and ability to fly, they retained tufts of feathers beneath the jaw and on the elbows. Such plumage was purple in at least some members of the species, black in others. The species' skin, meanwhile, was green with areas of orange around the eyes and the lower jaw. Standing on average at 1.7 meters tall, Kilmaulsi were burly and muscular compared to other humanoids, but they shared common humanoid traits, including a bipedal body structure with two legs and two arms, as well as a torso and a head. The face consisted of two relatively large eyes, which could be blue in color, a beak-like mouth with a tongue inside, and two nostrils above the mouth. Each arm ended in a hand with four digits, each tipped with a talon, while the legs ended in a long three-digit foot.

Kilmaulsi were considered children until the age of eleven, at which point they were considered young adults until the age of seventeen. Kilmaulsi were at their peak as adults between the ages of eighteen and fifty-five, hitting middle age at fifty-six and being considered old at seventy-five. The species' life expectancy was ninety years total.

Society and culture
With a culture forged through war, Kilmaulsi society was split into multiple tribes, each with its own devout religious views. Such differences led to conflict between the tribes, and for much of their history, the Kilmaulsi subgroups were at war. However, the battles were eventually ended by alien contact and the introduction of space travel. Indeed, the Kilmaulsi became so smitten with traveling the stars that they abandoned their age-old rivalries to focus on such voyages.

Once the Kilmaulsi were introduced to the rest of the galaxy, their society became more focused on technological advancement, as religion took a back seat as a cultural priority. Despite this change, the Kilmaulsi remained skilled warriors, valued as soldiers by the other sentient species who inhabited the Vorzyd Cluster: the Hrakians, Paiguns, Selonians, and Vorzydiaks. When in combat, Kilmaulsi warriors wore ornate green armor, although at least one individual wore purple, similar in all technical respects to battle armor. Whilst fighting they could enter a battle frenzy that made them appear as colorful blurs due to their speed and prowess.

Individual Kilmaulsi were devout, curious and resolute, traits that gave rise to the strongly religious period in their history and the obsession with exploration that followed it. Members of the species relished contact with other more peaceful species, although non-Kilmaulsi often found the avians to lack a sense of humor. Kilmaulsi were capable of speaking Galactic Basic Standard and so could converse with other species, but amongst themselves, they spoke their own language, which was also named Kilmaulsi. The language had a writing system as well. At least one Kilmaulsi also produced squawking noises whilst fighting. Examples of Kilmalusi names were Aryllan, Dawre, Eshalak, Lykern, Kir, Prakk, Thilvera, and Zarlia.

History
"My apologies citizens! Patrons are not allowed mechanical assistance at the games! Your droids must remain outside!"

- A Kilmaulsi guard on Vorzyd V informs Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa that their droids are not allowed inside the Casino Royale

The Kilmaulsi evolved on the forest planet of Kilmaulsias in the Kilmauls system of the Vorzyd Cluster. Their early history on their homeworld consisted of numerous conflicts between rival tribes based on religious differences. These wars abruptly ended upon the arrival of explorers from the Vorzydiak species, who had recently acquired hyperdrive technology themselves after having been discovered by explorers from the Galactic Republic. Indeed, the area around the Vorzyd Cluster was widely explored between 5,000 and 3,996 BBY. The Vorzydiaks, like the Kilmaulsi, originated from within the Vorzyd cluster, and they peacefully established contact with each of the warring Kilmaulsi tribes and introduced them to the concept of space travel. Alien contact had a profound effect on the Kilmaulsi, prompting them to end their bitter rivalries and leading many to migrate offworld to seek their fortunes among the stars.

Between 3,976 and 3,960 BBY, Kilmaulsias and the Vorzyd Cluster fell within the area of space affected by the Mandalorian Wars, in which the Mandalorian forces of Mandalore the Ultimate conquered a large number of unaligned planets in the Outer Rim Territories. Later between 3,959 and 3,956 BBY, during the Jedi Civil War between the Sith Empire of Darth Revan and the Jedi Order, the entire Vorzyd Cluster fell under the control of Revan while his Empire was at its greatest size. Within a century of the area's discovery, the species of the Vorzyd cluster&mdash;including the Kilmaulsi, Paiguns, Hrakians, Vorzydiaks and a lost colony of Selonians&mdash;formed a loose confederacy from their individual holdings, a government known as the Commonality. By the period between 1,004 and 1,000 BBY during the New Sith Wars fought between the Jedi and the Sith faction known as Brotherhood of Darkness, Kilmaulsias was considered to be in an unaligned region of space.

During the Clone Wars between 22 and 19 BBY, in which the Republic fought against a splinter faction called the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Kilmaulsias fell within the region of space controlled by the Confederacy until the groups dissolution at the end of the conflict. By 4 ABY, the planet was in the Greater Maldrood territory, one of the splinter territories of the Galactic Empire, the successor state to the Republic. It remained in the territory until at least 8 ABY, and by 137 ABY was considered to be part of the Galactic Empire of the Sith Lord Darth Krayt.

Kilmaulsi in the galaxy
"Aawwk!"

- A Kilmaulsi thug when attacked by Dass Jennir

After their introduction to space travel, the Kilmaulsi species took to the practice quickly, and many left their homeworld to explore the galaxy and seek their fortune offworld. A large number of Kilmaulsi booked passage on container ships from the nearby world of Hraki and found employment as laborers and soldiers elsewhere. After migration began, Kilmaulsi became a common sight throughout the cluster, usually serving in military roles or as manual labor. Kilmailsi could be found traveling away from their homeworld as early as 19 BBY, when, four months after Order 66 had taken place, a Kilmaulsi was present on the Neimoidian Purse world of Cato Neimoidia. The Kilmaulsi was affiliated with a member of the reptilian Chistori species, a cohort whom the avian agreed to help fight off rivals seeking the same employment. The job was being offered by a Human woman named Ember Chankeli from the planet Telerath and required those hired to remove a gang of slavers from her hometown. When the Chistori and the Kilmaulsi&mdash;along with several Neimoidian associates&mdash;arrived to accept the job, however, a pair of other candidates was already there, one of whom was the Human Jedi Dass Jennir, with whom the Chistori had previously fought for the job. The Chistori and his friends attacked the Jedi only to be defeated quickly in combat by Jennir's subtle use of the Force.

When, during the Galactic Civil War, the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker and the princess of Alderaan Leia Organa, both Human agents of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, visited the world Vorzyd V to disrupt the Galactic Empire's gambling operations there, they encountered a Kilmaulsi guard at the largest casino on the planet, the Casino Royale. The guard informed them that their droids, C-3PO and R2-D2, would be unable to enter with them because mechanical assistance was not allowed.

Behind the scenes
A Kilmaulsi first appeared in the comic strip Gambler's World, written and illustrated by Russ Manning. The strip was distributed between March 12 and September 8, 1979, by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate in American and Canadian newspapers. However, the strip gave no name or background information for the species. The story was colorized and reprinted in 1994 by Dark Horse Comics as part of the comic book Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures 4. The colors, by Ray Murtaugh, revealed the skin of the Kilmaulsi to be green.

The species did not appear again until 2004 when they were named and detailed as a species in the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Roleplaying Game sourcebook Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds, written by several authors and including an image of a Kilmaulsi by Mark Tedin. The book included roleplaying stats for a Kilmaulsi commoner, giving them average scores for each of the different attributes. In 2009, another Kilmaulsi appeared, this time in Star Wars: Dark Times: Blue Harvest, Part 2, the second of two mini-issues of Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars: Dark Times comic book series, which was designed as an introduction to the Blue Harvest story arc. The issue was written by Randy Stradley under the name Mike Harrison and illustrated by Douglas Wheatley.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Dark Times: Blue Harvest, Part 2
 * Gambler's World
 * Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures 3