Friday, December 20, 2013

Invid's Guide to the Star Wars Universe: Alien Species (#99)

981. Shimholts. Shimholts are 1) an interesting sort of ugly, and 2) long-lived.

Their culture apparently found something dishonorable in being captured by outsiders, and one of their member was ostracized after being captured (and apparently then released) in an Imperial raid; for some reason, this made him want to join the Empire, and they gave him a high-ranking position for some reason.

...You can always tell the Star Wars Marvel Comics stories...

Rating: 3/5 on the basis of their appearance, mostly.

982. Shistavanens. Shistavanens are supposedly rarely seen in the galaxy at large, but I count eighteen named characters, so I find this dubious. (Consider that the Shistavanens are one of an estimated twenty million sapient species, which is a really small group in a really large population, even if there are billions of them.) They're supposedly isolationist, and are largely found in loner-type occupations off their homeworld, such as scouts, bounty hunters, and so on.

They find work in such occupations, of course, because of their fairly stereotypical predatory species skills, such as fierce claws and teeth, good sense of smell, etc. Kinda boring.

It doesn't help that they exist because somebody grabbed a wolfman mask to use in the cantina scene.

On the other hand, the original Shistavanen character fell in love with a (Florn) Lamproid at first sight, and that's kind of wonderful.

Rating: 3/5, because their existence contributes to one of the odder canonical romances in the entire Star Wars canon.

983. Shorak. Near-humansscreeeechno, I'm sorry, dying hair, getting arm tattoos, and being more muscular than the human baseline don't qualify as an alien species description. That basically describes, what, pro wrestlers? I don't know.

Rating: 1/5. Not even worth mentioning the illogic of their relationship to the Peroenians so I'll just link that article (they're the rival group mentioned there).

984. Shownarri. Near-humansyoink.

Rating: 1/5.

985. Shrieks. There may be only one Shriek (which may not be the name of whatever it is), because Ewoks cartoon.

Anyway, the known Shriek is a purple-furred cartoon alien with a third eye on an eyestalk sticking out of its head that drove off intruders by, as the name suggests, shrieking.

Also, his name is Larry.

Rating: 2/5. Because Larry is a hilariously incongruous name.

986. Shrobs. Shrobs are ambiguously canonical "saurian humanoids." They apparently are native to a planet that was colonized and forcibly made to work in its environment-wrecking industries, and while they were traditionally pacifistic, their pariah status on their own homeworld drove them to violence.

Rating: 3/5. ...I dunno, I'm feeling unusually favorable towards them.

987. Shusugaunt. The Shusugaunt are supposedly known as fierce warriors, but they invaded a high-gravity planet (homeworld of the Anx), and got tired so they ran away.

Rating: 2/5. Amusing.

988. Sibilaari. The Sibilaari homeworld exploded at some point, and since their civilization apparently was entirely within the bounds of their planet, that should have been the end of that.

However, they were advanced enough to make well-shielded stasis devices that they used to preserve some proportion of their population, and at least some of these found their way into an asteroid belt. This asteroid belt would later be the site of a mining rush, and the miners would uncover the Sibilaari's existence.

Considering that the Sibilaari apparently possess vast physical strength, are capable of surviving indefinitely in vacuum, Force sensitive, can withstand hand weapon fire, navigate asteroid belts without mechanical aid, and completely silent when in atmosphere (due to somehow absorbing noise to nourish themselves), this probably didn't end well (not surprising, considering they're from a role-playing game adventure).

Rating: 4/5. I'm having a bit of trouble grokking their description, but they also sound suitably alien.

989. Sic-Six. Sic-Six are quite large spider creatures with highly sensitive hearing who apparently don't like each other terribly well. While they apparently could be a nuisance (like Lamproids-see earlier link) in the style of an invasive species that happens to be sapient, they also are popular in certain circles because most beings not native to their world find their venom inebriating rather than toxic.

...In other words, they're paid to bite people for those people's pleasure.

This is strange and fascinating to me.

Rating: 4/5.

990. Sif'krie. At least twenty percent of the Sif'krie homeworld's economy is centered around exporting products of the hilariously named pommwomm plant, which is the source of eight useful medicinal substances and sixteen natural flavoring agents. However, pommwomm export is time-sensitive, and when their unfriendly neighbors, the Frezhlix, blockaded them in an effort to get them to support measures in the galactic government to punish the Bothans during the Caamas Document crisis, it threatened their economic stability severely.

Fortunately, even though they couldn't get a message out properly, they were rescued by a New Republic task force, and would then contribute to the peacekeeping fleet that protected the Bothan homeworld.

Rating: 3/5.

-Signing off.

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