STAR WARS: Humans & Humanoids (2024)

• Introduction
• • Chiss
  • Massassi Sith
  • Zabrak
  • Theelin
  • Vultan
  • Yuuzhan Vong
• Pseudohumans
  • Falleen
  • Twi'leks
• Lifespan
• References

The STAR WARS galaxy is inhabited byseveral million sapient spacefaring species.Humans are the most numerous and dominant species,with apparently millions of major and minor colonies galaxywide.Most of these people are indistinguishable from the terrestrial humans(hom*o sapiens),however there are also many galactic citizens who have minorphysical features outside the range of human diversity on Earth.There is also an astonishingly great number of speciesthat resemble humans in basic form,despite having completely different biological origins.

This page considers how these populations relate to each otherand to the baseline humans.Some cases must represent a genuine and direct biological connection.In many instances the physical differences are just as trivial as thedifferences between human races on Earthwith respect to skin tone and minor facial details;these people are almost certainly in the same speciesas modern terrestrial humans.In other instances the differences are slightly greater,placing the sapients in a separate species within the hom*o genus,or perhaps a related genus within the same taxonomic family.(Those species would relate to hom*o sapienslike horses relate to donkeys, or lions to leopards.)These species are examples of what biologists calldivergent evolution which is"the development of two or more uniquespecies from one ancestral species through the differential evolution ofisolated populations."

In other cases the beings in question have a fundamentally differentbiology, despite having some features similar to humans.They belong to a completely differenttaxonomic class, order, phylum or even kingdom.(Eg. reptiles or plants which happen to havethe same gross body form or facial configuration as humans.)Such species cannot be related to humans through a common evolutionary ancestor,Their existence can only be rationalised through more subtle arguments.The existence of these beings may be due to what biologists callconvergent evolution"which is the process by which two completelyunrelated species come to exhibit similar traits (either morphologicaland/or behavioral) by independently adapting to similar ecological andenvironmental selective forces."For instance this is the idea that explainsthe vague (and not visually complete) similarity of sharks and dolphins,which is a similarity aided by the fact that they are within the same phylum from the same planet.Some STAR WARS humanoidsmay result from a more parasitic and dependent form of evolutionwhereby unrelated species evolve human-like traitsdue to the selective forces arising from the environmental influence of humans.In other words, the long-term presence of humans galaxy-widemay influence the evolution of younger sapient species.

For the purpose of this page, I divide the humanoids(human-shaped sapients) into two classifications:

1. "near-humans"- as termed in RPG references,those which are close biological relatives ofas modern terrestrial humans.Their similarities are essential and intrinsic.
2. pseudohumans- [literally: "false humans"]those which are biologically unrelated to humans,Their similarities are superficial and result from mimickryby either random coincidence, evolutionary influenceor cosmetic surgery.

I describe example species and racesas illustrations of the diversity and mimickry of humansin STAR WARS.This document does not purport or aspire to catalogue allhumans and non-humans appearing in the canon and official literature.That task is be impossibly large.

Thanks to:

• Michael Dolanfor reference to function of Vultanhead ridges in TOTJC.
• Arkady Hodgefor observing the significance of Thrawn's red blood.
• Dan Krouseremarked on the comparison between the eyes of Maul and Palpatinein Episode I and VI.
• Jose Luccaof the USA's Environmental Protection Agency,for the definitions of divergent and convergent evolution.
• James McFaddenfor information and illustrations of Gade Yedan and Mazzic.
• Roland M?cksteinfor the reference that seems to equate "Massassi" with a warrior caste.
• Daniel Wallacefor a reminder about the Zelosians.

It has been established that humans were amongst the first sapient speciesto develop hyperdrive in the STAR WARS galaxy[see eg. Essential Guide to Vehicles & Vessels;SWAJ #8: The Gree Enclave].Corellians were amongst the first to do so,but humans were already present throughout the galaxy,which implies that they had slower means of interstellar transportfor a long time earlier.

The isolation of pre-hyperspace colonies must have ensuredgradual evolutionary drift from the baseline human population.In some cases, the new characteristics would be adaptive,suiting the people to environments that were slightly differentfrom the long-forgotten human homeworld.High technology would lessen these natural selection effects,because technological humans dwell in an effectively artificial environment,but deliberate genetic manipulation remains a possibility.Drifts in the aesthetic instincts of mate-selectioncan also cause human features to evolve in an isolated population.Through these mechanisms the humans of the era of slow interstellar travelmust have diverged in their genetics.

Racial characteristics,like the superficial differences between some populations of humans on Earth,should be obvious across the galaxy.With further divergence, the people of some worldswould no longer be able to produce healthy, fertile children,if they were somehow brought together in marriage.Thus humanity would be divided into distinct species,as was the case with the coexistant neaderthal and "modern" humanson Earth.Greater differences would even result in divergent genera.

The presence of multiple species of humans in STAR WARShas interesting implications for the setting of the saga.The origins of humanity are regarded as a mystery in Palpatine's civilization,and the tales are deliberately separated from terrestrial existence.However the genetic diversity of these humans requires thatthey have been spread throughout their galaxy for at least as longas hom*o sapiens has been on Earth today.This suggests that STAR WARS is set in our future,even though in the narrator's point of view it all happened"a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away".If this isn't the case, then humans must have been taken from Earthby unknown agents in prehistoric times,and it might even be necessary to invoke backwards time travel.

Grand Admiral Thrawn is the most famous example of a people who call themselvesthe Chiss.They dwell in the "Unknown Regions", which presumably means that theyhave settlements on a world circling a straggler starthat has ended up outside the main galactic disk.

All of the Chiss observed to date have pale blue skin,black hair,and red eyes.The eyes are sometimes described as being luminous,but it would be more realistic to suppose that the skin of the eyehas a highly reflective sheen or is flourescent in red light.

In all other respects, the Chiss appear to be baseline humans.

One of the most interesting signs of their biology isthe fact that Thrawn bled with red blood[The Last Command, p.424].If his blood were a different colour,then it would have been necessary to assign him biological originscompletely separate from the haemoglobin-using vertebratesof Earth, and his huamn-like form would have been very hard to explain.Fortunately he bleeds like any other human man(and he appears to have vital organs in the same part of the thorax).Therefore it remains possible and likely that Chiss are truly human.

A second important point arising from the redness of Chiss bloodis the strong difference between this colour and the hue of Chiss skin.Terrestrial humans who are albino or whose racial derivationsmake them poorly pigmented appear pale pink because of the colourof blood within their largely colourless surface tissues.Humans with skin colour other than pale pink musthave strong pigment.The colour of Chiss skin pigment is probably significant.It may indicate something about their usual environment(eg. the ambient sunlight)or it may be a case of Darwin's "sexual selection"(runaway evolution of a feature that has no adaptive valueexcept in the aesthetic preferences of members of the opposite sex,as in the bright plummage of some species of birds).

A final clue to the humanity of the Chiss comes from the suggestion ofcloning Grand Admiral Thrawn,which was the fear or hope of many inSpectre of the Past and Vision of the Future.Either the technology of the cloning tanks acquired from Mount Tantiss[exposed in Dark Force Rising]is general enough to work with a wide range of species(which would be a remarkable accomplishment for something to mimickan organ that is as species-specific as a womb),or else Chiss wombs are nearly identical to human wombs.

Grand Admiral Thrawn bled redly.

Spiker, one of Jabba's swoop hoodlums, shares Thrawn's distinctivephysical characteristics.

The Massassi¹ were isolated red-skinned humansdominated for thousands of years by the Sith.It appears that "Sith" was an exclusively Massassi cultureuntil they were encountered and subjugated by exiled Dark Jedi.The Massassi interbred with the immigrant human Sith,thus proving them to belong to the same species.Therefore the Massassi skin pigmentation and fleshy tufts on the chin and browsare merely racial characteristics,and are no more significant thanthe eyelid structure and skin colour differencesbetween some races on Earth.

The Sith mage (formerly Dark Lord) Naga Sadow eventually took refuge on Yavin 4, accompanied by many Massassi followers.Over time he used his powers to alter the Massassi biologicallyso that they became more physically strong and athletic, but less visibly human.

However it seems likely that other groups of Massassi merged with the generalhuman gene pool after contact between the Galactic Republic and the Sith.(Even if the Sith Empire was empty after Sadow's downfall,the brief but violent Massassi attacks on Coruscant and other worldscould have seeded countless illegitimate offspring.)In the Skywalker era there are numerous individualswho bear Massassi-like characteristics,such as the fleshy chin tufts.They were rendered originally and most distinctivelyby artist Edvin Biukovic (RIP).In order of publication, examples include:

• Academic Gade Yedan in X-Wing Rogue Squadron: The Phantom Affair.With pink skin and fleshy chin tufts,he appears to be a cross of Caucasian and Massassi.He was the first example in the literature.His nose seems flatter than the Caucasian average,but well within the range of terrestrial humans.
• The smuggler Mazzic in the comic version of The Last Command.His skin is more blue-grey than pink and his nose is flatter than Yedan's,which may suggest a slightly different ancestral mixture,or perhaps a difference of health and grooming.(He cannot be pure Chiss, although the skin matches,because Chiss don't have chin tufts;Mazzic's eyes are unseen beneath goggles.)
• Norym Kim in Crimson Empire II,member of The Imperial Interim Ruling Council.He appears to be another member of Yedan's stock.

FOOTNOTE:

1. According to some interpretations of the wording ofGolden Age of the Sith #4,"Massassi" might have been the name of merelythe warrior caste.The reference mentions "Massassi warrior class",which might mean (1) "warrior class of the Massassi race"or alternatively (2) "warriors = Massassi, of the [anonymous] race."In these commentariesI continue to use "Massassi" as a collective biological term,since there is no other suitable name for the whole race/subspecies.

The shade of Marka Ragnos recounts the interbreeding of the baseline humanSith Lords with their subjects,during the period when the Sith held a local empire in isolation fromthe Galactic Republic.

Three possible examples of crossbreeds betweenbaseline humans and Massassi descendents.Gade Yedan from The Phantom Affairand Mazzic from The Last Command,rendered by Biukovic.Norym Kim, member of The Imperial Interim Ruling Councilin Crimson Empire II,described as a "human-like Myke."

Apparently another racial variation, species or subspecies of human.Eeth Koth, a member of the Jedi Council in The Phantom Menaceis the speciment officially named as a Zabrak person,but Sith apprentice Darth Maul also looks as if he belongs to that race.Maul is said to come from Iridonia[Episode 1 Journal: Darth Maul]but the name of the planet may have nothing to do with the name of his species.

Both known examples are bald on the front and top of the head,and this may be a common characteristic of their people.Short horns sprout from the forehead and temples,although the pattern of horns differs between Koth and Maul.It is not yet known whether the different arragements signifydifferences of race, health or age.There is at least a difference of grooming:the skin is pushed back around the base of Maul's horns,like ill-tended fingernails stripped of their quick,whereas Koth's horns are covered by smooth, unharmed skin.

Darth Maul's eyes are coloured red whereas Koth's eyes are like those ofa baseline human.The difference may be a sign of different breeding or ill-health in Maul,but considering Maul's other proclivitiesit seems more likely that his eyes are coloured by deliberate(and extremely delicate) tatoos.By the time of Return of the Jedi Palpatine had developeda similar eye colour.It is probably an idiosyncratic adornment or a result of disease,because Lord Vader had blue eyes when he died,despite being a far more advanced Sith than Maul.

In all other ways the Zabrak are indistinguishable from hom*o sapiens.The horns imply that they're in a different species,but they might still belong to the same genus.

Jedi Councilor Eeth Koth is defined as a Zabrak.

Darth Maul is another horned near-human.He bares tatoos and his horn configuration is different from Koth's,but they may belong to the same or closely related species.[TPM]

According to the profiles in Dark Empire Sourcebookand Essential Guide to Characters,Han Solo's friend Shug Ninx was a human-"alien" crossbreed,which probably means that he is an inter-species hybrid.His father was a human from Corellia,and his mother was of the extinct or near-extinct "Theelin race".This latter group must have been at least close enough to hom*o sapiensto produce a partially viable child,like the creation of a mule from a horse and a donkey.Like a mule, Ninx is probably infertile.Alternatively, the Theelin people might be a race within hom*o sapiens,but in that case there would be no grounds for calling them "aliens"nor for official prejudice against their crossbreeds with baseline humans.

Shug Ninx looks like a straight-haired caucasiod human except forthe reduction from four to two fingers per hand,and mottled skin patches, particularly around his mouth.These presumably are traits of the pure Theelin.There may be other minor Theelin characteristicswhich are not manifest in Ninx.The different number of digits might seem extreme,but it is well within the scope of relatively harmless genetic defectsin baseline humans;whereas among the Theelin it would be considered a normal condition,and four-fingered children might be singled out for corrective surgery.

Oss Willum in the Tales of the Jedi seriesrepresents a race known as the Vultan.His body appears to be entirely the same as a baseline human,with pale olive skin.His only obvious distinction is the mass of fleshy cartilage folds and ridgescovering the top and back of his head.These ridges don't seem to perform any vital function.They may provide fat storage or protection against certain kinds of head injury.It is said [in Tales of the Jedi Companion, p.103]that the head folds protect the head against some injuries,though this subsepcies characteristic might have evolved for other reasons.Interestingly, the females have fleshy strands radiating out from the head,rather than folds parallel to the surface.Such visible dimorphism seems likely to play a role in courtship.

On their home planet of Vulta they "blossomed" from agricultural feudal economyto high-technology civilisation fourteen thousand years before the Palpatine era[TOTJC].By that point they must have been distinct from baseline humans.Therefore their agricultural prehistory must have lasted much longer,from whatever prehistoric time when baseline humans first became stranded there.

Oss Willum is defined as a Vultan man.

Zona Luka is evidently female, and the tresses of flesh on her headmatch the published description of Vultan females.Her skin is the same tone as Oss Willum's.Her feet have only two toes though,which is unlike unmutilated, undeformed baseline humans.More ridged structures are visible on her upper torso,reminiscent of what Willum has on his head.Her white eyes, lacking pupils and irises, may signify blindness(which is not an obstacle to a Jedi or Sith career).

Vector Primedescribes the start of an extragalactic invasionby a group known as the Yuuzhan Vong.Their advance scouts have been infiltrating the STAR WARS galaxyfor years (eg. Nom Anor in Crimson Empire II).Transmissions for the galactic civilisation would not have been hard to missfor any travellers approaching the galaxy;the choice of invasion time was probably dictated bythe disorder and vulnerability occasioned bythe removal of both the Jediand the strong central government of Palpatine's regime.The galaxy would have been unassailable at any other point in its history;the Yuuzhan Vong probably have less than a decadebefore the Galactic Republic / Empire regains enough strengthto justify its usual complacency.

Physically the Yuuzhan Vong are human except for slight differencesof height, mass and distribution of hair [Vector Prime p.23].They carry different values and culture,which are at one extreme of the range of human possibilities,but they appear to be the same in all other ways.

The similarity demands explanation.It seems likely that the invadersare indeed members of the same species or genusas the humans of the Skywalker galaxy.The origins of humanity in STAR WARSare lost in prehistory and the species has spread across one whole galaxy,so it is easy to imagine that humans may have colonised other galaxiesin the long-forgotten past.If the STAR WARS galaxy is not our ownthen there must have been at least some intergalactic travelimporting the species from the Milky Way,deep in the prehistory before the establishment of the Old Republic.

If they are human or near-human then the existence of the Yuuzhan Vongconstitutes a vital point of data about the status of all human speciesin the STAR WARS milleu.

Nom Anor as rendered in Vector Primeand Crimson Empire II,bare and cloaked in his presumably living attire respectively.

The unified government of the Galactic Republic lastedover twenty-five thousand years,and before the final union took placethe human population must have already been spreadin stellar and interstellar nations throughout the galaxy.Some human cultures survived at least hundreds of thousands of yearsin the recorded past.Humans could easily have been present in some parts of the galaxythroughout an even older prehistory.

The pervasiveness and technological power of humans means that theycannot help being a major part of the environmentfor evolving sapient and non-sapient beings.Even if evolution ceased or slowed for humans themselves,due to their technological control over their surroundings,the mere presence of this species must have affected the evolutionof younger sapient species that were not properly protectedby the declaration of sanctuary worlds.For a low-tech species confined to its homeworld,humans are profoundly dangerousand a gateway to a literal galaxy of offworld resources.The ability of sapients to interact successfully with humanscould become an important determinant of survival, prosperityand reproductive success in the less advanced species.Some species may evolve features enabling them to exploit humansin a directly organic manner.Others may be adapted for subconscious psychological manipulation of humans.Judging by the onscreen canonical evidence,many sapient species are adapted to mimick human beings.

After contact with the relatively resource-rich humans,the evolution of a species' facial features and vocal organsmay have tended towards human resemblance,for the sake of empathy and communication.Within the species, those less able to satisfy with and communicate withthe dominant galactic species would not be as successfulas competitors resembling humans.

The Falleen are a reptillian species that is basically confined totheir homeworld,although their youths habitually wander the galaxyseeking of experience and fortune (presumably).In terms of facial features and general build they resemble humans,but there are telltale reptillian characteristics:they are supposed to be cold-blooded;they have finely scaled skin;they have a horny spinal ridge.

Some of the human-like features are very noteworthy for a reptile:eg. head hair, a naval,and what appear to be mock mammeries (in the case of females).These features are almost certainly evolved to mimickand attract empathy and favourable attention from humans and near-humans.

The Falleen also possess potent pheromone glandsthat convey conscious communications between their own kind,but which have a powerful and compulsive subconscious effect onhumans and (we can assume) related species.These pheromonal effects induce animalistic attractionand cloud human judgement.

It is therefore clear that the Falleen have evolved to becomesapient sexual parasites upon humans.They resemble humans in erotic ways that are far from the normal functionof reptiles.They prey upon reproductive instincts,and they become powerful in a way that is not unlike the non-sapient tacticsof cuckoo chicks in the nest of another bird family,or flowers that are shaped to confuse and entice mating insects.The Falleen adaptations may have taken hundreds of thousands of yearsto develop, so we can predict that they have been visited by humansfor at least that span of prehistory.

Prince Xizor exercises his pheromones to influence humans.

Xizor's neice Savan has a surprising number of mammalian attributes,for a reptile.These are most likely adaptations to aid Falleen femalesas they prey upon human males.

Another Falleen female, from Alien Encounters.Curiously, the accompanying text indicates that"Falleen females are visually almost identical to males;the most notable exception is that their spinal ridge is usually smallerand a brighter green in colour."No mention of pelvic structure or mimick mammeries.visually

This page is not intended to deal with every minor human-like speciesinvented in the literature;there are better books for that purpose.One such book, Alien Encounters,includes one especially interesting example of a pseudohuman species.The Zelosians are supposed to be superficially indistinguishable fromhumans (aside from the colour of their eyes),but their entire biology is plant-like at a cellular level.Their origins are a mystery, but according to the published profilethe Zelosians themselves believe that they were created deliberatelyby genetic engineering.If so then their natural mimicry of the human form is a matter of designrather than coincidence or long-term evolutionary adaptation.

Zelosians: human-shaped plants, according to WEG.

The Twi'leks are a hairless species shaped like humans,originating on the arid world of Ryloth.On their homeworld their existence is primitiveand they live tenaciously in underground cities.They have been subject to offworld slavery for thousands of years,and the representation of Twi'leks in the literature suggests thatmost Twi'lek emigration is due to slavery or criminal involvement.Twi'leks are famed for their wit and cunning.

Thus they are a generally disempowered people.They depend on external forces,particularly the human-dominated greater galactic civilisation.This probably accounts for their more human-like attributes.Over the ages, those Twi'leks with the most human-like faceswould be better at evoking empathy and successfully communicatingwith the numerically- and economically-dominant humans.(Proto-twi'lek faces might have been much different.)Likewise the Twi'leks that matched the physical posture of humanoid specieswould have least difficulty interfacing with conventional galactic technology,and the species would evolve towards a generally humanoid body form as well.

However some fundamental physical differences are retained in parts of the bodythat aren't directly involved in the use of technologyor the manipulation of humans.The most conspicuous such feature is the pair of "head-tails",tentacle-shaped, prehensile, cerebral appendagessprouting from the back of the skull."Lekku", as they are properly called,are completely beyond the scope of human brain and limb development,and would require substantial differences in embryology.(It is this attribute that proves that the Twi'leks cannot have sproutedfrom the evolutionary tree of true humans,unless there was some very profound deliberate genetic engineering.)

The sensuous lekku serve a communicative role among the Twi'leks,with a wide range of subtle and articulate body language.They may once have been closer to the front of the Twi'lek faceto facilitate communication, and the present swept-back positionmay be an evolutionary compromise withthe need for human-empathy via a humanlike face.Male Twi'leks still appear to grow an additional pair of relic tentaclesunder their chins, which may still be expressive.Obese Twi'leks develop massively fat-laden lekku,in proportion to their overall body weight.Infant Twi'leks have only short, bud-like lekku,making them appear more humanlike than the adults.

Twi'leks of various genders and stages in the life-cycle,as shown in Tales of the Jedi: Redemption.

With two examples in Jabba's palace,the Twi'lek females have fewer non-human featuresthan males of their species.Most noticeably, females lack the fleshy tendrils seen on males' chins.

The STAR WARS canon and spin-off literatureis full of examples of biologically distinctive sapient specieswhich have converged to the humanoid formin terms of figure and/or facial features.In some cases this may be due to the evolutionary influence of humans.In a few cases genetic engineers may be responsible.Some species may match the human form by pure coincidence,and they would adapt to human-made technology easily.

Species which differ from humanoid formwill feel clumsier with human tools,which would impede their propagation throughout the galaxyin many subtle ways.This effect would be analogous to the technological influenceswhich render left-handed humans more vulnerable to accidents,giving them shorter life-expectancies.Conversely there are specialised technological nicheswhich are unsuited to humans(eg. podracing,which employs species with suprahuman reflexesfor the sake of bloodthirsty entertainment).Unless a non-humanoid species can produce all of its own technologyor has compensating physical or mental gifts,its members are unlikely to be inclined towards space travelor settlement beyond their homeworld.This may explain the great variety of STAR WARS sapientswhich have human-like limbs and hands but vastly different heads.

The Cathar Jedi Silvar.Macus Kayniph, Black Sun official in Crimson Empire II.

In the novel The Joiner King [p.19],Princess Leia attempts to reassure Han Soloabout his aging and the slowing of his reactions specifically.At this time, Solo is aged in his mid-sixties.His wife expects him to live 40more years, or perhaps 50 if he takes care of himself.This implies that life expectancy for a human male is about 110 years.

• Alien Encounters, Paul Sudlow, West End Games.
• Dark Empire, Tom Veitch & Cam Kennedy, Dark Horse Comics.
• The Dark Empire Sourcebook, Michael Allen Horne, West End Games.
• Dark Force Rising, Timothy Zahn, Bantam.
• Golden Age of the Sith, Kevin J. Anderson, Dark Horse Comics.
• The Jabba Tape, in STAR WARS Galaxy Collector #1, John Wagner, Topps Publishing.
• The Last Command, Timothy Zahn, Bantam.
• The Last Command, Mike Baron et al., Dark Horse Comics.
• One Truth, television advertisem*nt, Lucasfilm Ltd.
• Shadows of the Empire, John Wagner et al., Dark Horse Comics.
• Shadows of the Empire: Evolution, Steve Perry et al., Dark Horse Comics.
• The Sith War, Kevin J. Anderson et al., Dark Horse Comics
• Spectre of the Past, Timothy Zahn, Bantam.
• STAR WARS I: The Phantom Menace, George Lucas et al., Lucasfilm Ltd.
• STAR WARS Episode I Who's Who, Ryder Windham, Running Press.
• STAR WARS Handbook volume two: Crimson Empire, Michael D. Hansen, Dark Horse Comics.
• Tales of the Jedi Companion, George R. Strayton, West End Games
• Tales of the Jedi: Redemption, Kevin J. Anderson, Dark Horse Comics.
• Vector Prime, R.A.Salvatore, Del Rey.
• Vision of the Future, Timothy Zahn, Bantam.
• X-Wing Rogue Squadron: The Phantom Affair, Dark Horse Comics.