Geonosian/Legends

"This place reeks of bugs."

- Sev

The Geonosian race, often called Geos or bugs in clone trooper slang, was an insectoid species native to the planet Geonosis. Geonosians resided in catacomb-like hive colonies beneath the organic-looking spires.

Notable Geonosians included: Poggle the Lesser, Gizor Dellso and Sun Fac, who all held important roles in the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

The Geonosians, with their long snouts and spindly limbs, bore a certain resemblance to B1 battle droids, which they manufactured for some time before the outbreak of the Clone Wars.

Biology and appearance
Like all insects, Geonosians had a hard exoskeleton that provided protection from physical impacts and bouts of radiation that occasionally showered their world, elongated faces, multi-jointed limbs, and spoke in a language consisting of clicks and whistles. Geonosians were strong despite their thin builds, and were capable of constructing massive hives and factories in concert. They were considered barbaric by other races and viewed brutal violence as entertainment. They enjoyed watching victims trying to survive in massive execution arenas while being attacked by savage predators. Despite this, they were technical geniuses, capable of constructing structures such as the Geonosian hives and massive droid foundries.

Early history
In the distant past, Geonosis's largest moon was hit by a rogue comet, sending out a massive debris field that hammered the planet's surface into ruin, before settling into a ring of orbiting rock. This event killed off more than 99% of Geonosis's native species.

Over millions of years, the few creatures who survived the devastation slowly reclaimed the planet. Random meteor impacts constantly weeded out the weaker species, leaving only the truly cunning, hardy, and ruthless species alive. The Geonosians, the dominant life form on the planet, constituted all three.

A new form of transport, the cargo kite, was invented for use in the dense atmosphere of the planet by the early Geonosians.

After the technical-minded Geonosians made contact with the galaxy, the Baktoid Armor Workshop moved several droid and weapon factories to the planet.

Clone Wars
In 24 BBY, during the reign of Archduke Poggle the Lesser, Geonosis became a member of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which used the planet's factories to build its Droid Army. Two years later, in 22 BBY, Poggle scheduled a private meeting of the Confederacy leaders on Geonosis. It was expected that during this meeting the organizations that formed the backbone of the Separatist movement would put their resources at the disposal of Count Dooku, the Head of State of the Confederacy.

Unbeknownst to the Separatists, their plans of waging war against the Galactic Republic were heard by Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had followed Jango Fett, a bounty hunter employed by Dooku, to Geonosis. Kenobi managed to transmit his discoveries to his Padawan Anakin Skywalker, who was at that time located on Tatooine, before being caught by the Separatists. After retransmitting the information to the Jedi Council, Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, the senator of Naboo, decided to rescue Kenobi, but ended up imprisoned themselves.

Eventually, Kenobi, Skywalker and Amidala were taken to the Geonosian execution arena, but managed to free themselves. The Separatists, in turn, introduced battle droids to the arena, triggering the Battle of Geonosis, the first battle of the Clone Wars, as Jedi reinforcements, led by Master Mace Windu, revealed themselves among the public and entered the arena to confront the droids.

After the Confederacy's defeat at the Battle of Geonosis, the planet was occupied by the Republic.

During the retaking of Geonosis, a temple was discovered where Queen Karina the Great of the Geonosians lived. She utilized a parasite, which enabled her to control the victim's mind.

Post-Clone Wars
As the Clone Wars ended with the Republic, restructured into the Galactic Empire, victorious, Geonosis remained under Imperial control. Geonosian Gizor Dellso and several other Geonosians formed a Separatist holdout during the aftermath of the Mission to Mustafar, but the organization was dissolved during the Battle of Mustafar. Geonosian scientists and slaves also played a role in the construction of the Death Star. During the Galactic Civil War, Geonosian scientists set up a bio-lab on Yavin 4.

The Geonosians were primarily used for slave labor by the Empire. However, in 0 BBY, a Geonosian revolt was instigated by Rebel forces, who had built a secret base on Geonosis. Darth Vader, leading an invasion force, was sent to crush the revolt in what became the Subjugation of Geonosis. Although the Geonosians and the Rebels, fighting side by side, put up a good deal of resistance, the Imperials emerged victorious in the end, destroying all present Rebel operatives, and killing the revolting Geonosians and destroying their homes.

After the first death of Emperor Palpatine, Geonosis established an isolationist policy, not wishing to have a repeat of what happened at the beginning of the Clone Wars.

Although spared by the horrors of the Yuuzhan Vong during their invasion of the galaxy, the race came into the galactic eye once again when most of the remaining population became Joiners of the Killiks during the Swarm War, fighting alongside Jaina Solo and Zekk during the Battle of Tenupe.

Society and culture
"Cody, a frontal attack is most unwise. That blast-proof housing is of Geonosian design. Their technical skills are as renowned as their ruthlessness&hellip;"

- Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi to CC-2224

In Geonosian society there were two main types of Geonosians: the wingless drones that mostly worked as laborers and the winged aristocracy, which included royal warriors serving as scouts and providing security to the hive. Geonosian society existed for the benefit of the elite of Geonosian society. Their caste system had evolved over millennia. Geonosians were born into specific castes divided along the lines of their physical attributes. Though most Geonosians were content to live within their assigned castes, a few developed ambition and aspired to ascend socially. Even those with the capacity to depart rarely left Geonosis. The importance of the hive was strongly ingrained in the Geonosian mind, and they were also contemptuous of other species. The few that ventured offworld usually left as work groups that ultimately benefited their home hives. Geonosian contractors could be found at Baktoid Combat Automata plants across the Outer Rim Territories.

Due to their insect hive culture, the Geonosians possessed many cultural events. One of them was a martial art known as Petranaki, which went back to Geonosian belief in deities (called Overlords) who would fight one another in armed combat to spare their hives from destroying one another through war. Petranaki involved a set of weapons called the "petranaki array", which included such weapons as the confessor's whip, caster's net, petranaki scimitar, picador's spear (also known as a static pike), and the beastwarden's shield. This form of arena combat was considered a noble, high class profession. Petranaki gladiators were thus given a level of distinction beyond the limits of their caste (although never equal with the aristocrats).

They considered the number 33 to be a lucky number, and if a larva was born the 33rd egg of his clutch, it was taken to be a good omen.

Common Geonosian names were Deetle, Eorlax, Krylla, Lysslo, Mazzag, Qorn, Sollas, and Vikkal.

Queen Caste
A queen's body and head somewhat resembled regular Geonosians, although it had six limbs opposed to four and its abdominal section was a massively-bloated ovipositor with which to lay eggs. The queen could lay an egg roughly every eight seconds. The head was larger and had a giant crest. Queens kept the hive running and were the central link of the Geonosian hive mind. In fact, some queens had such a powerful link with the hive mind that they could actually control dead warriors.

So far the only known Geonosian queen was Karina the Great. Karina was capable of speaking some basic and was able to control sentient beings through the use of Brain Worms. This implied that Karina and maybe other queens had a high level of intelligence and were able to use some type of telepathy.

The Caste was largely unknown to the Republic in the beginning of the Clone Wars. It was only discovered when Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker went on a search mission for Jedi Luminara Unduli, who was tracking Poggle the Lesser.

Warrior caste
The winged warrior caste grew to adulthood rapidly, and were ready for combat at the age of six. They also formed the aristocracy of Geonosian society. While they possessed enough intelligence to defend their hives from natural predators, they proved easily conquerable by more sharp-witted foes.

Like their society at large, the warrior caste was divided between the elite and the regulars. The elite warriors were a genetic superior to the regulars, having greater abilities in the art of war, and appeared to be equipped with cybernetics. While the regulars were only equipped with weak force pikes or sonic blasters and barely any protection gear, the elite were given beam weapons capable of cutting through the personal shields and plating of Katarn armor. These beam weapons, like their pilot and ships, were intricately connected to create the Geonosians' brand of a perfect warrior, unified and highly dangerous. They also, for reasons unknown, had a second pair of walking legs and longer abdomens that normal Geonosians lacked, perhaps due to genetic engineering or selective breeding.

Geonosians did not have a formal standing military, although they had basic security and law enforcement forces. They instead used their droid foundries to build armies or large amounts of droids for corporate interests wealthy enough to afford them&mdash;entities such as the Trade Federation and the Techno Union. They oversaw the creation of the spectacular architectural realm in which they all live, adapting forms they once built by instinct into more refined, spire-like structures.

Worker caste
The members of the worker, or lesser, caste were wingless Geonosians that formed the lower class of Geonosian society. They were oppressed by the warrior caste, most of which thought nothing of compelling thousands of workers to toil under harsh conditions regardless of any dangers. They constructed spires and droid foundries, as well as more complicated architectural feats, such as the Petranaki arena. Some of the members of this caste were known to have non-functioning wings.

The only hope a worker might have of escaping his lowly status lay in gladiatorial combat. Geonosians of lower-caste were often pitted against other Geonosians, other sentients, or fierce creatures in large arenas. If the Geonosian survived, he achieved status and ascended socially, or gained enough wealth to leave Geonosis altogether.

Poggle was once a member of that caste, hence his surname "the Lesser."

Other castes
One Geonosian subgroup to emerge was a separate caste raised to be fighter pilots. These hardy specimens required no sleep. In training, each pilot pupa paired with a fighter's flight computer, and they developed an idiosyncratic, coordination-enhancing rapport. The pilots lacked wings.

Another subgroup was the picadors, which operated the Geonosian gladiatorial arenas. The picadors were trained to ride orrays and use static pikes to direct and wrangle arena beasts. The arena picadors were actually drones from other castes who had proved themselves worthy in the arena. They were given slightly more dignity than a typical worker drone.

Yet another caste was the zombie caste, some queens' personal cadre of undead servants whose brain worms permeated death and forced them into unquestionable loyalty. These undead were able to take more damage than their living brethren and bounce back even after dismemberment.

Behind the scenes
The Geonosians were based primarily on concept art originally developed for the Neimoidians when George Lucas wanted to make them a computer-generated creation. When Lucas decided to use animatronic masks instead, the Neimoidian design was refined further into the Geonosians.

Their ruler names, such as such as Karina the Great and Poggle the Lesser, are similar to those of famous Russian rulers like Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great and Peter the Great.

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * The Return of Tag & Bink: Special Edition
 * The Return of Tag & Bink: Special Edition