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- "Greetings, surface dwellers!"
- ―Squik, greeting Wicket W. Warrick and Teebo
A species of amphibious, sentient humanoids was characterized by green, scaly skin and yellow fins. Some members of the species were short and plump, while others were tall and brawny. Many of the humanoids inhabited the Underwater Kingdom, located below the surface of Sunshine Lake on the Forest Moon of Endor. Most of that population lived in large caves, where they cultivated their main source of sustenance, known as food pearls, with the help of the light from a large red pearl. Other members of the species on Endor terrorized their brethren by raiding them for this commodity.
In 3 ABY, an Underwater Kingdom subject named Squik rescued the Ewoks Wicket W. Warrick and Teebo after a creature known as a devil serpent attacked them. Squik took the Ewoks to the Underwater Kingdom. A tyrant named Orcon assailed the settlement and made off with their red pearl. Squik and the Ewoks voyaged to his stronghold to recover it, but the gem was destroyed in a skirmish there. However, Teebo gave the underwater dwellers a blue pearl that was even more powerful than its predecessor.
Biology and appearance
- "I'll show that no good fish-faced…"
- ―Teebo, confronting Orcon
Orcon was a larger specimen of his species.
Living in subaquatic settlements, one sentient species was adapted to life in fresh water.[4] Except for a yellow tail, their bodies were covered in green scales and featured a musculature and anatomy similar to that of other humanoid species. Their faces had white eyes, small depressions where the nose of other beings might be, and expressive brows. Yellow fins grew in several locations along the body: the back of the head, the sides of the cheeks, the insides of the forearms, the length of the spine, and the tip of the tail. They had three clawed digits on each webbed hand and foot.[3] Members of the species could breathe and speak both in and out of water,[4][5] and they were strong swimmers, able to withstand powerful currents.[6]
The species came in two major variations that differed primarily in size: one group stood about a meter tall on average, while the other was almost twice that height.[2] The shorter group were pudgy, with limbs relatively short in proportion to the body, whereas the taller group were muscular, with humanoid dimensions similar to Humans and other species.[3] Both groups had strong jaws capable of eating hard pearls,[7] but the taller members of the species also made use of sharp teeth.[8] Whereas the shorter underwater dwellers had green bellies that matched the rest of their coloration, the taller variants had yellow stomachs that displayed a pattern of deep striations.[3]
Society and culture
- Squik: "Hee hee! That pearl won't do you any good in there! Better let me prepare it for you!"
- Teebo: "Prepare it? Y–you're cutting it up!"
- Squik: "How else can you eat it?"
- ―Squik and Teebo discuss food pearls[src]
Underwater dwellers ate food pearls.
A group of underwater dwellers lived in the Underwater Kingdom,[9] a polity deep beneath the surface of Sunshine Lake on the Forest Moon of Endor.[4] Their main settlement was a large grotto accessible only through an underwater opening.[10] Meanwhile, a bigger member of the species, Orcon, lived alone in his personal stronghold, a cave within an underwater mountain.[5] Although Orcon's domain was barren, the cave where his smaller brethren lived was littered with shiny, yellow food pearls, which were carved up with knives and eaten as the main source of nourishment.[10] The light emitted by a large, red pearl fostered the growth of these foodstuffs[11] until it was replaced by an even more potent blue pearl in 3 ABY.[12][13] The underwater dwellers considered these luminescent pearls their most important cultural possession and kept them hidden in a large shell.[11]
Endor's underwater dwellers had access to simple technology such as knives,[7] nets,[14] and tridents.[3] They tamed lake creatures such as devil serpents and water wallocks as mounts and attack beasts, and even knew how to summon these creatures by blowing through shells.[6][15] Orcon had a trident with which he controlled his personal devil serpent.[8]
The denizens of the Underwater Kingdom were vulnerable to raiders. The smaller underwater dwellers, for example, had to contend with Orcon, who demanded tribute in the form of food pearls.[14] Orcon was capable of ignoring the pleas of his victims and of showing no remorse when he took all of their food pearls and left his cousins to starve.[16]
Although their aquatic lifestyle kept them from encountering terrestrial sentient species with any regularity, the underwater dwellers were generally welcoming and hospitable to such strangers, whom they called "surface dwellers."[4] Food pearls were a common gift offered to such guests.[12] Other members of the species, however, demanded that strangers treat them with the utmost respect and grew irked at perceived slights.[8] Endor's underwater dwellers were able to speak and comprehend Ewokese.[14]
History
- "Why…our food pearls are glowing brighter than ever! The blue pearl must have greater strength than our red one!"
- ―Squik
Orcon was a larger underwater dweller who raided his smaller brethren.
The underwater dwellers of Endor established the Underwater Kingdom under the surface of Sunshine Lake.[9] They learned to cultivate food pearls,[11] and chose the lake's submarine grottos as their homes.[17] They tamed the native creatures of the lake as mounts and beasts of burden.[6]
At some point, a larger, more aggressive underwater dweller named Orcon took up residence in a large, underwater stronghold.[5] He relied on his smaller brethren for food pearls and survived by raiding their grottos on his personal devil serpent.[3] The smaller underwater dwellers quickly learned that giving in to his demands was a sure way to make him leave, and they grew inured to his despoliations.[14]
In 3 ABY, an underwater dweller named Squik rescued two surface dwellers from drowning in the lake and carried them into his people's underwater lair.[18] The underwater dwellers welcomed the strangers, Ewoks named Teebo and Wicket,[17] and showed them around their home.[19] However, the tour was interrupted when Orcon appeared astride his devil serpent and demanded food pearls. Although the smaller underwater dwellers complied,[20] Orcon demanded the remainder of their stores. The Ewoks pleaded for him to leave,[14] but he took umbrage and commanded his devil serpent to open fire with its energy beams.[8] The resulting fracas unearthed the red pearl, and Orcon absconded with this new prize.[16]
The smaller underwater dwellers despaired that the loss of the pearl would spell their doom, but Wicket formulated a plan to recover the item. He and Teebo would need to travel underwater to Orcon's stronghold, so Wicket fashioned makeshift helmets for himself and Teebo from bubble plants, and Squik summoned two water wallocks for the Ewoks to ride.[21] Squik led the way to Orcon's lair, where the trio sneaked past the devil serpent and entered.[22] The Ewoks attacked Orcon and wrestled the red pearl away,[23] but the brigand summoned his attack beast and commanded it to blast the interlopers.[15] Squik grabbed the red pearl and created a diversion as Wicket and Teebo swung by on vines and swiped the trident Orcon used to command the beast.[24] The ploy worked, and Wicket used the three-pronged weapon to order the serpent to attack its former master.[25] Orcon fled, but the red pearl was destroyed in the commotion.[26]
Squik despaired that the loss of the pearl would truly spell the end of his people.[26] However, back at the Underwater Kingdom's main grotto, Teebo presented a blue pearl he had found to his new allies to cheer them up. To everyone's surprise, it had an even more powerful effect over the food pearls than its red counterpart had previously manifested.[12]
Behind the scenes
- "Travel to the underside of Endor and…the Underwater Kingdom!"
- ―David Manak
This unnamed amphibious species appears in Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, a Marvel comic book written by David Manak and illustrated by Warren Kremer.[9] The story leaves the real name of the species a mystery and reveals only scant information about their society. The comic also fails to establish why some underwater dwellers are short and chubby while others are tall and muscular. The variation may represent juveniles and adults, two distinct races, or even two different species.
Similarly, no information is provided about the underwater dwellers' origins. Other sources suggest that they did not evolve on Endor and are instead from another planet. For example, Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds lists only Ewoks and Yuzzums as native to the Forest Moon.[27] Similarly, "Castaways of Endor" adds only Duloks to this company.[28] Nevertheless, these two works, along with "Endor and the Moddell Sector," provide a rationale for the moon's myriad other sentients: such beings are offworlders who crash landed there after falling prey to Endor's massive gravity shadow and large screen of space detritus.[29] Nevertheless, no source explicitly describes the underwater dwellers as hailing from another planet, so they cannot be ruled out entirely as natives of the moon.
Appearances
- Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom (First appearance)
- Ewoks Annual (Includes reprint of The Underwater Kingdom)
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 3
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 6, shows the underwater dwellers as the same size as young Ewoks, but p. 8 shows Orcon as almost twice their height.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 8
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 4
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 14
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 13
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 6
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 10
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 2
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, pp. 5–7.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 7
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 22
- ↑ Star Wars: Behind the Magic places the Star Wars: Ewoks animated television series in 3.5 ABY but makes no mention of the Ewoks comic book series. Nevertheless, as the character designs in the comic book are identical to those of the the first season of the Ewoks television show, the comic book stories must take place around the same time as the animated cartoon.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 9
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, pp.17–18
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 11
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 5
- ↑ Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, pp. 3–4
- ↑ Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, pp. 6–7
- ↑ Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, pp. 8–9
- ↑ Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, pp. 12–13
- ↑ Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 15
- ↑ Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 16
- ↑ Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, pp. 19–20
- ↑ Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 20
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 Ewoks 9: The Underwater Kingdom, p. 21
- ↑ Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds, p. 40
- ↑ "Castaways of Endor," p. 1
- ↑
"Endor and the Moddell Sector" — Star Wars Gamer 9, p. 28