Tag: animals

(Mount Anon again) To be specific, I’m looking for a species of small-to-medium sized riding animal (so about Fathiers’ size), that could be used by a rebel cell on a jungle planet (like Devaron or Kashyyyk) similarly to how the Twi’leks used blurrgs. Something fast, agile, and that you could easily fire blasters/use melee weapons while riding, y’know?

In that case, I think a fathier might be a good choice. They’re quite expensive and may be hard to acquire, but they are definitely fast and agile and there is an instance of the Rebellion using them for hit-and-run missions. A falumpaset might also work, as they’re intelligent and used to navigating jungle and swamp, though they won’t be as fast – they may be better used for carrying equipment/ammo. Many ungulate species may also work, depending on where in the galaxy you are, especially the kybuck, a Kashyyykian animal resembling a tauntaun. You might like to look through the ungulates category on Wookieepedia, and see if anything there fits your location and circumstances. 

I hope that helps!

~ Jacen

Links / Before You Ask / Tip Jar

Do you have a tag for animals/non-sentient species? I’m looking specifically for a good animal for a character to ride into combat cavalry-style—something similar to a Tauntaun, though possibly something adapted to a warmer climate. Any ideas?

I do have an animal tag, though I don’t believe there’s anything there to answer your question. One that immediately comes to mind would be a fathier, but I imagine this would depend heavily on the planet and context you’re thinking of. Would you mind elaborating a bit?

~ Jacen

Do you know of any planets that might have giant, dinosaur-sized megafauna?

Numerous planets have one or more species of animal (native or immigrated) that can get very big, but I don’t know of any where that’s a defining characteristic of the lifeforms there. Like Earth, most planets have megafauna as well as smaller species, and many have ones that are dinosaur-sized (although I suppose it depends on which dinosaur…)

One of the best examples might be Tatooine, with a number of massive species such as banthas, dewbacks, rontos, sarlaccs, rancors (rare on Tatooine) and krayt dragons. You will also find large animals on pretty much any jungle world; Dagobah has giant swamp slugs and dragonsnakes, Endor has gorax and boar-wolves, Yavin 4 has runyips. Also worth noting would be Bespin, home to absolutely huge animals such as the beldon (which can grow up to 10km in diameter) and the velker, and Naboo, with giant aquatic animals as well as mammals such as falumpasets and fambaas. Basically, you’re likely to find something big on just about any planet. 

I hope one of those works!

~ Jacen

Are there any examples of falconry (or a similar practice involving a different falcon-like animal) existing in Star Wars? If not, what would be a good alien animal to sub in for a falcon?

Twirrling was a sport practiced by nobles in the galaxy, originating on Naboo, that is based on falconry. Usually, the participant would ride a gualama and send the twirrl, taking the place of a falcon, to catch small prey. I suppose there’s no reason other birds of prey couldn’t be used, such as the spire falcon, native to Coruscant, but their trainability is mostly unknown. 

Hope that helps!

~ Jacen

prepare4trouble:

swpromptsandasks:

So ah, weird
question.

I seem to remember
a creature called a skull panther as being part of the star wars
universe and I swear I’ve used it before.

However I can’t
seem to find any information on it and now I’m starting to wonder
if I either made it up or borrowed information about it from another
series.

Anyone help a
writer out?

@writebetterstarwars, any ideas?

I don’t know of any animal called a skull panther in Star Wars. All that comes to mind is the sludge panther and the sand panther, could one of those be what you’re thinking of?

What do you think of the purgill and their helpfulness/ destructiveness?

I think they’re such a neat concept, I’m really loving all of Rebels’ new animals. It’s very interesting to see these animals who’ve been around for millennia and millennia willing to help out the crew (I’m kind of a sucker for Jedi-animal partnerships). And it’s interesting to consider that their example led to the invention of the hyperdrive (in new canon) and now they’re known for interfering with hyperspace travel and are shot on sight. I do hope they show up again somewhere. (I think it’d be cool if we got a canon book around the Before the Republic era involving them!)

~ Jacen

Is there are Star Wars creature that’s able to track via Force-impression (or a common Jedi ability aside from the thing Quinlan Voss could do)? I have a character who needs to be found by the mains, but he’s unconscious at the time and doesn’t have a locator of any kind.

It seems likely to me that loth-wolves would be able to track a person through use of the Force, but of course they are rare and live only on Lothal, as far as we know. If that works for you, I’d say it’s the best option. Most animals that can use or sense the Force use it for hunting or self-defence, and those which hunt with it are generally not friendly to other Force-users. I would suggest the muttamok, a semi-sentient sort of monkey that is capable of accessing the Force. While I don’t believe they’ve ever been known to track a person down, they do have telepathic abilities and are generally pretty friendly. Give their Wookieepedia page a read if you like. I think they would probably be your best option.

Hope something works out!

~ Jacen

There’s an unpleasant-for-everyone situation, and someone tries to laugh at the other person’s lame joke. It sounds like a (creature) being strangled; what would the “creature” be? Like, as a general expression someone would use, not that they have personal experience of those sounds.

Honestly, you could pretty much use any small animal. Probably one from your character’s homeworld or somewhere else they’ve spent time, and possibly something vaguely feline, in order to follow the real-life expression. A nexu could be a good one to use. I know you write for Rebels a lot, so perhaps a loth-cat, a sabercat or a puffer pig. I’m sure mynocks would make a pretty bad sound when strangled, and most people know what mynocks are. One more thing, off the top of my head, could be the shriek-hawk from Mandalore. These kinds of expressions usually vary from planet-to-planet and culture-to-culture, so feel free to ask again if you need something specific to one world.

I hope that helps!

~ Jacen