Invid's Guide to the Star Wars Universe: Alien Species #7

We're finally getting into "B" this week!

61. Askhew. The Askhew are "ambiguously canon" furry sapient beings. They hunt brown banthas but worship blue banthas.

Rating: 2/5. Worshiping blue banthas sounds suspiciously drug-induced, but the blue banthas actually have their own article, which I'll get to later. What really bothers me is that there seems to be more information on blue banthas than on these guys.

62. Assembler. Assemblers are awesome. They're spider-things that create huge webbed networks of interconnected organisms, all subservient to a primary Assembler. These networks are contained within huge husks that float around in deep space, assimilating nearby space dust and possibly hapless space travelers. The only known Assemblers appeared in several books as informants and go-betweens for bounty hunters such as Boba Fett.

Rating: 5/5. Didn't you read my previous statement of Assembler awesomeness? Probably the best part of the Assemblers is that they aren't hive-minded bugs spiders but have a lot of the trappings of such. Also, one of the two known Assemblers was created as an accountant by another Assembler (seriously, read the article, it's fun) and retained his original name when he killed the other and went into business for himself. His original name denoted his function: Balancesheet.

Yes.

63. Avogwi. The Avogwi are one of two sapient species which may be known as Altorians (I briefly mention Altorians here). Avogwi are giant birds of prey (between five and six feet tall, or thereabouts, though their wingspans are much too small for them to actually fly even though they do) who 1) violently object to the idea that they may be related to the other Altorians, the Nuiwit, because they see the Nuiwit as pathetic prey animals, and 2) regard all of the universe as either predators or prey, with the predators being the strong and the prey being the weak.

It must be some blow to their egos that their arrogance let the Nuiwit monopolize trade with offworlders and thus become by far the stronger of the two species.

Rating: 3/5. By themselves, they would merely be a particularly brutal breed of Sesame Street bird. (Seriously speaking, on Sesame Street birds are the only people who are racist. Yes, really. Other than Big Bird, of course.) With another species to be their foil, they become reasonably interesting.

64. Avoni. The Avoni were would-be purchasers of some kind of bioweapon. Their ambassador who served as their proxy was named Dol Heep (no relation to the Great Heep, mentioned here.) Dol Heep was also sent to "conquer" a world struck by plague and evacuated/emptied. Or something.

Rating: 1/5. They... don't have any information beyond the fact that they wanted stuff (albeit at the expense of others). Real useful.

65. Ayrou. The Ayrou are a humanoid/avian species who are considered beautiful in appearance... but have awful screeching, fear-and-discomfort-inducing voices. They also are hoarders and have quirky debating tendencies.

Rating: 3/5. A solidly thought out, if somewhat minimal, species. I have to admit that the unpleasant screaming aspect amuses me as well.

66. B'das. The B'das... are a sapient species that is a member of the New Republic.

Rating: N/A. Too little to rate. There are too many of these.

67. B'rknaa. The B'rknaa are/were sapient rock creatures. In and of itself, this would get them something like 2/5. But there's something else about the B'rknaa: Their homeworld, the moon Indobok, was actually a full-grown member of the species.

Unfortunately, Indobok was killed/destroyed during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Stupid jerky invaders.

Rating: 5/5. Aside from their wonderful concept, I love the art of them. Just go take a peek.

68. B'trillan. The B'trillan were from the Core Worlds, and are known for "their strength."

...

Lots of strength? Not much strength? Very middling strength?

Rating: 1/5. More information than the B'das, but it's not much better.

69. Babb. Babbs are small in stature and for some reason are often thought of as contrasting Wookiees. They were seen in a group by Anakin Skywalker once.

Rating: 1/5. Oooh, Anakin saw some once! How important!

70. Bafforr tree. Bafforr trees are talking (well, telepathic) hive-minded trees. They are very pacifistic, and only become sapient when they hit seven trees in a grove. The Empire tried to figure them out, but never experimented on more than one tree at a time, which kept them from learning anything. The great Bafforr forests were greatly revered by the Ithorians, the natives of the Bafforrs' homeworld, to the extent of being at least mildly worshipped. Their pollen causes a severe allergic reaction in certain Yuuzhan Vong bioweapons, which caused the invaders to try to wipe the species out in a vicious biowarfare attack. Ithor was destroyed, but the species was rescued.

Rating: 5/5. The Bafforrs are one of those things whose combination of history, interesting conceptual design, and intertwined story importance is not only worthy of a 5/5, it's virtually perfect. It's a little sad that they were yet another victim of the frequent abuses of the Yuuzhan Vong (who were interesting, but probably not quite interesting enough to warrant all that), and the degree of their pacifism is a little extreme (they didn't want an Ithorian to seek revenge on or justice for an Imperial officer who wiped out an entire forest's worth of them, no matter the cost-then again, that was a little seven-tree grove that later lost one...), but they're still a pretty darned awesome species.

Wow, rather a lot of good ones this time.

-Signing off.