Urgah

Urgah, also known as Urgah Lady Gorneesh, was the queen of a tribe of Duloks on the Forest Moon of Endor. She was the mate of King Gorneesh and the mother of several children, including Prince Boogutt. Urgah's appearance was typical for a Dulok: she had green, unkempt fur, long, tufted ears, and thin limbs. She bound the fur of her cheeks, chin, and the top of her head. Urgah regularly wore a tattered, pink shawl and sported a ring through her dark nose.

Biography
Urgah was a female Dulok who hailed from the Forest Moon of Endor. By 3 ABY, she had married a male Dulok named Gorneesh. At some point, Gorneesh became the king of the tribe to which Urgah belonged, making her queen of the large band. The royal couple took up residence in a hollowed-out tree in their village in the Dulok Swamp. Urgah received a throne made of stone, which sat beside her husband's; from it, she helped preside over the tribe's affairs as one of the three highest-ranked members of the group alongside Gorneesh and the shaman, Umwak. She also performed religious duties at times.

However, Urgah suffered from the prejudices of her species that relegated females to domestic and reproductive roles: she was expected to cook, wash dishes, and take care of her children. Indeed, by 3 ABY, Urgah had borne Gorneesh several pups, including at least two boys and one girl. One of the couple's children was Prince Boogutt, the heir apparent to lead the tribe in 3 ABY.

Bathing beauty
Urgah's tribe had a generations-long history of warfare with the tribe of Ewoks that inhabited nearby Bright Tree Village. As such, her husband was constantly hatching schemes to get the best of his rivals. In one encounter, the Dulok shaman, Umwak, reported to the king and queen that a large number of Ewok guards had prevented him and two companions from stealing a bar of Ewok soap, which the Duloks desired to help them repel the insects that infested their fur. Although the shaman's report was a lie&mdash;his bumbling was instead to blame&mdash;Gorneesh ordered Umwak and another Dulok to sneak into the Ewok village and steal the soap.

Umwak later returned with a bar of soap he had stolen from the hut of Logray, the Ewoks' shaman, and Urgah joined the other Duloks for a bath in the swamp. Urgah was the first to discover that this soap was different, however&mdash;it did more than clean fur; it turned the bather invisible. The Duloks were at first shocked at her discovery, but Urgah found that washing again with water returned the bather to a normal state of visibility. Gorneesh declared a raid on the Ewok village, with the invisible Duloks impersonating tree spirits.

While the subsequent raid went well at first, the Ewoks discovered the ruse, and a scramble ensued over possession of the invisibility soap. The Ewok Wicket W. Warrick ended up with the invisibility soap, but Urgah, Gorneesh, Umwak, and several Dulok warriors intercepted him at the bank of a river. When the Ewok refused to hand over the invisibility soap, Gorneesh turned him upside down and shook him until a bar was dislodged. Urgah grabbed it, and Gorneesh released the captive. The Duloks departed and attempted to repeat their raid by bathing to become invisible. However, they soon discovered that the bar the queen had swiped was a third type of soap: one that attracted insects. Urgah and the others soon found themselves diving for cover as Logray and the Ewoks released swarms of insects upon them and forced the Duloks to flee back to their swamp.

Guess who's coming to dinner
Another day, the Tulgah witch Morag dropped off a baby Phlog named Nahkee at the Dulok Swamp and used threats of magical retaliation if Gorneesh and his tribe did not babysit him. Meanwhile, she would convince the infant's parents that the Ewoks of Bright Tree Village were behind his disappearance. Urgah helped with the childcare duties, cooking a gray stew called glock, which Nahkee ate by the cauldron-ful. When Gorneesh grew tired of the attention the Phlog gave him&mdash;it was particularly enamored of the Dulok king and treated him like a pet&mdash;he attempted to tie the baby down and take a nap. The Phlot escaped. Urgah surmised that the smell of glock would draw the baby back, however, so she cooked up a batch. The plan worked better than anticipated: the baby Phlot brought three young Ewoks with him, Wicket W. Warrick, Teebo, and Malani. Gorneesh immediately had them take over babysitting duties until he could ransom them later. When the Ewoks' friends, Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka and Latara, came looking for them, they were also captured and forced to join in the Phlog's care.

When Urgah heard Kintaka humming a lullaby, the queen taunted the Ewok princess into serenading the Dulok village with the song. Kintaka dis so, with Latara accompanying her on flute. However, the Ewoks had secured the help of several humming peepers; the combination of music and the fast-beating wings lulled the Duloks into slumber. The Ewoks escaped with the Phlog. When Gorneesh awoke to find their captives missing, he stirred Urgah and the others for an attack on Bright Tree Village. However, they were greeted there not by Ewoks but by full-grown Phlogs: baby Nahkee's father, Zut, mother Dobah, and brother, Hoom&mdash;by this point fully aware of Morag and the Duloks' role in Nahkee's kidnapping. The Phlogs attacked, forcing Urgah and her tribemates to flee.

A night at the opera
The incident with Nahkee was not to be the last of Urgah's babysitting nightmares; three of her own children proved too much for her to handle when they began to climb on her, pull her ears, and bite her tail. Urgah thus demanded that Gorneesh find her a babysitter&mdadh;if not, she would not cook him anything for dinner. The hungry king complied, sending two scouts on the mission. They returned with the Ewok Latara, whom they had kidnapped while she was running away from her village as a member of the Travelling Jindas, an itinerate band of Jinda entertainers. The Jindas arrived at the Dulok Swamp soon thereafter, and their leader, Bondo, offered to perform for the Duloks in exchange for a night's hospitality. Urgah, finding the Jindas cute, begged her husband to let them stay, and the king acquiesced.

That night, Urgah sat with Gorneesh, her three cubs, and their Ewok babysitter directly in front of the Jindas' stage. The rest of the tribe proved a less than hospitable audience, however, jeering and throwing things at the performers. When Bondo asked for Latara's assistance during the act of Trebla the magician, Gorneesh ordered her to mount the stage. Unbeknownst to the Duloks, Bondo had brought several of Latara's friends to the venue, and they were attempting to rescue her. Their attempt floundered, however, so Latara stalled for time by playing her flute. The tribe reacted with boos, but Urgah begged Gorneesh to silence them so she could hear the "love song"; the king did as she asked. The Ewok escape plan failed again, as Latara's friends fell from the stage's rafters and Gorneesh ordered them captured. Nevertheless, the Jinda and Ewok allies evaded the Duloks and escaped.

Wicket's Wagon
Umwak was tasked with investigating a battle wagon a Dulok scout had espied being repaired in the forest by Wicket W. Warrick. Urgah accompanied the shaman to discuss the device with Murgoob, as she was curious to see the tribe's reclusive oracle. At Murgoob's lair, the oracle refused to come out, but he told the queen and shaman that the battle wagon had been used long ago by the Ewok Erpham Warrick to thwart a Dulok attack on the Ewoks' Soul Trees and drive the Duloks back into the swamp. However, by obtaining the weapon for themselves, the Duloks could take over the forest.

Gorneesh led a group of warriors to steal the wagon. When they reached the swamp with the war machine, Urgah joined her husband and Umwak in provisioning the weapon. She then witnessed as Wicket W. Warrick, disguised as Murgoob, goaded Gorneesh into an "attack" on the Ewoks&mdash;with a trajectory that sent Gorneesh and all the battle wagon's riders into a nearby river. Nevertheless, the Duloks captured the impostor and imprisoned him aboard the wagon as Gorneesh ordered an attack on the Soul Trees; he was joined at his command post from inside the bantha skull atop the wagon by Urgah and Umwak. They first encountered a group of young Ewoks, who warned their tribe about the attack. Urgah joined her husband in defying the Ewoks who met them with weapons and demanded the release of Warrick and the Duloks' immediate retreat. Instead, Gorneesh ordered attack after attack, smashing through Ewok defenses. However, the battle was lost when the Ewok Malani reached the wagon, helped free Warrick, and joined her tribe mate in ejecting all the Dulok passengers from the weapon except Urgah and Gorneesh. With the removal of the battle wagon's master support peg, Warrick caused the contraption to collapse with Urgah and Gorneesh aboard.

A Gift for Urgah
Later that year, Urgah and Gorneesh celebrated their wedding anniversary. To mark the occasion, Gorneesh gave Urgah a gift&mdash;which she promptly rejected as not good enough. Her ire was so great that she ejected the king from their home, throwing things at him and warning him not to return until he found a suitable gift for her.

The king sent Umwak and two scouts to bring back a gift for his wife. The trio tracked the Ewoks Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka, Latara, Teebo, and Wicket W. Warrick, who were on their own quest to find a present for Shodu Warrick. The Duloks saw the Ewoks emerge from a hidden temple with a blue gemstone; Umwak thought it would be perfect for the queen, but his efforts to obtain it proved fruitless. Instead, Umwak captured Wicket W. Warrick and his mother Shodu Warrick and brought them to the Dulok village. There, he presented them to Queen Urgah as slaves&mdash;along with the blue gemstone.

Urgah wasted no time showing her new servants their places: she demanded they hand over the jewel and that the older Ewok bow to her. The younger and older Ewoks attacked the king and queen in turn, but Gorneesh and his guards deflected the assaults. Gorneesh asked his wife what punishment she would like to mete out to the two, but before the queen could pronounce their punishment, the jewel&mdash;actually an egg&mdash;hatched into a dragon and bit the queen's nose. In the ensuing chaos, the Ewoks escaped. The queen, enraged once again, chased her husband through the swamp as he chased the shaman, each blaming the other for the catastrophe.

Later encounters
Urgah later performed a ritual at the Dulok Swamp with Umwak, while other Duloks drummed and Gorneesh presided from his throne. While Urgan danced and held a stone, the shaman wore a ceremonial headdress. However, the ritual was cut short when the Stranger, a Wizard of the Night Spirit, appeared and frightened the queen into fleeing. The Stranger then demanded the aid of the Dulok king to storm Bright Tree Village.

During the Bright Tree Ewoks' Fishing Festival of 3 ABY, Urgah donned a two-piece bathing suit and boarded the Dulok battleship captained by her husband to disrupt the Ewok festivities and steal the fish they caught. From her seat at the ship's stern, Urgah pleaded to steer the vessel, but Gorneesh chose to test the battleship out by destroying a nest of skibs with the ship's onboard catapult. Urgah remained on the ship with the king when it ran aground on a sandbar and the other Duloks got out to free it. Over the course of the voyage, Urgah joined the Duloks as they stole the Ewoks' lucky prow carving, kidnapped and pressed into rowing the Ewoks Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka, Latara, Teebo, and Wicket W. Warrick, and were attacked by water-squirting skips retaliating for their destroyed nest. Indeed, Urgah and the others were plunged into the river when Warrick and Teebo convinced the skips to overturn the boat. When the Ewoks ran for the catapult, Urgah chased them, but she overshot her targets and fell into the water. The Ewoks then shot a rock at the ship with a boulder, sinking it.

Personality and traits
Urgah placed a great deal of importance on material wealth and appearances. For instance, she merrily primped and preened when the Duloks stole soap from the Ewoks of Bright Tree Village. Likewise, she refused her husband's anniversary gifts in 3 ABY until he presented her with what she took to be a valuable gem. She found the Traveling Jindas to be cute&mdash;including and especially those who were actually Ewoks in disguise. The queen normally wore a patchwork pink shawl around her shoulders and fastened with a curved bone or horn, a gold-colored anklet, and a ring through her nose. She bound the hair on top of her head with pink beads, and that of her jowls with cord. The queen had pink eyes, green fur, gray skin, and brown eyebrows. Her lips were red, and the fur around her eyes was blue. The queen also owned a two-piece bathing suit that she wore during a voyage of Gorneesh's battleship.

Urgah took pleasure in the misfortune of others. For instance, she laughed when Murgoob the oracle insulted his nephew, Umwak, and again when her husband destroyed a skibs' nest with his battleship. She sometimes taunted others, as when she sarcastically demanded that Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka serenade the Dulok village with a song. However, Urgah had her softer side. She enjoyed live entertainment, so she was welcoming to traveling performers, especially if they sang love songs, She was also one to appreciate and smell fresh-cut flowers. Urgah was curious about the Dulok oracle and accompanied the shaman to see the recluse.

Urgah was aware of her elevated position within her tribe, and she demanded respect from those she considered inferior. On one occasion, she ordered Shodu Warrick and Wicket W. Warrick to bow to her as slaves. However, like other Dulok females, Urgah was often relegated to the duties of childcare, breeding, and housekeeping. She was tasked with cooking for Gorneesh and with caring for their children at least on occasion; these tasks forced her to endure her children's misbehavior and abuse. In another instance, Urgah had to prepare cauldron after cauldron of glock for the infant Phlog Nahkee. Nevertheless, Urgah knew how to bend her husband to her will. At times, she begged, cajoled, and sweet-talked him. She called him by the pet name "Gorneeshy"&mdash;and he called her his "little swamp bunny." At other times, she henpecked the king and levied ultimatums. For instance, she threatened to withhold Gorneesh's dinner when her children gave her too much trouble. She was also quick to flee when frightened, trusting her husband to protect her, as when the Stranger appeared in the Dulok village.

The queen's voice was a high-pitched screech at times, an even timbre in others. Her laugh was a cackle.

Behind the scenes
"Joe [Johnston] killed off their leader, so rather than try to revive him when I did the Ewok development, I created three new Duloks and made them the leaders."

- Ewoks associate producer and story editor Paul Dini in 1988

Paul Dini created Urgah during his tenure as the associate producer and story editor of Star Wars: Ewoks, an animated cartoon created for CBS by the animation studio Nelvana. Dini chose to use the Duloks, the mean-spirited cousins of the Ewoks, as major villains in the series. However, the storybook that had introduced the species, Joe Johnston's The Adventures of Teebo: A Tale of Magic and Suspense, had killed off their ruler, Vulgarr. Dini thus created three new Dulok leaders to serve as major antagonists for the television cartoon: Urgah; her husband, Gorneesh; and the Dulok shaman, Umwak. Later sources have revealed that Endor's Duloks were not united under a single leader; rather they were divided into several clans and tribes. Thus, Urgah's membership in the tribe once headed by Vulgarr is uncertain.

For the first season of Star Wars: Ewoks, Urgah was voiced by Melleny Brown. She appeared in the show's inaugural episode, The Haunted Village, written by Dini and directed by Raymond Jafelice. The episode first aired on American television on September 14, 1985.

In 1985, Kenner released an Urgah action figure as part of the Ewoks toy line, under the name "Urgah Lady Gorneesh." The action figure packaging is the only source to refer to the character as "Lady Gorneesh." In 1986, Urgah took to the ice as part of "The Ewoks and the Magic Sunberries," a short, live-action ice-skating segment that toured with the Ice Capades.

Appearances

 * The Haunted Village
 * The Haunted Village (film)
 * Wicket's Wagon (book)
 * Tales from the Endor Woods
 * The Ewoks and the Magic Sunberries
 * Wicket's Wagon (book)
 * Tales from the Endor Woods
 * The Ewoks and the Magic Sunberries
 * The Ewoks and the Magic Sunberries
 * The Ewoks and the Magic Sunberries
 * The Ewoks and the Magic Sunberries
 * The Ewoks and the Magic Sunberries