Introduction

The wookiee species has played a major part in galactic events. While nowhere near as influential as the Republic, the various Sith Empires, or the Mandalorians, they have always been involved. The wookiees are often seen as savages due to their hirsute appearances and their native tongue which to non wookiee ears sounds like a combination of howls, snarls, and growls. This image of the wookiees is highly misleading, as the wookiees are a technologically advanced and culturally developed species, that is valued just as much for its technological knowhow as it is for its great strength and warrior traditions. In this course we will look at the wookiee lifestyle then we examine their history.

Part 1. The Wookiee Lifestyle

Wookiee Physiology and Life Cycle

Wookiee young, called pups are born large, averaging around a meter in height and often reach adult heights in excess of two meters. The Wookiee pups mature quickly, walking unassisted and possessing rudimentary reasoning capacity within a standard year. All wookiees possess a set of retractable claws to assist them in climbing and though they are sharp and look fearsome these are never used for combat. Employing claws in such a manner is a strong wookiee taboo and considered a sign of madness or neurological damage in the species. Doing so gets the offending Wookiee named a ‘mad claw’ and exiled from wookiee society. Wookiees are covered in a medium length coat of thick hair. The colors of this hair range across a spectrum of brown, though there have been known to be albino wookies as well. These albinos are seen as a bad omen by their culture and suffer an inherent disadvantage in being unable to blend into the foliage of their home world. Wookiee females possess six breasts and give birth to their young after a year long gestation period. Wookies are exceptionally long lived by human terms, averaging a lifespan of 600 standard years.

As a species they display an affinity for technology and an uncanny ability at mechanical repair and technological tasks. Wookiees also have a facility with languages easily learning to understand many languages they encounter. Their vocal chords however make them incapable of speaking anything but their native language, Shirywook. They are also exceptionally strong by human measurement and have been observed performing various feats of strength. The common cautionary story of a wookiee “ripping someone’s arms off” after becoming annoyed is not exaggerated. Wookies are fully physically capable of such a deed and often display short tempers. However, they are not savages, but fully sentient beings, and are just as often observed being gentle and caring toward their families or those they consider to be friends.

Wookiee Culture

The Wookiees possess a strong and vibrant culture. Their initial backward appearance is misleading as they are a technologically advanced and culturally developed society. The wookiees call themselves “The People of the Trees,” and a visitor to their home world of Kashyyyk will immediately understand why. The planet is almost completely overgrown with the wroshyr trees that stand kilometers high and support entire cities in their canopy levels. A single wroshyr is capable of serving as a landing pad for a medium sized freighter at the canopy level when pruned and flattened appropriately. This is possible even at the trees highest and thinnest point. The wookiee language, Shirywook, contains over 150 separate words for “wood,” depending on its grain, amount of moisture, etc. This species defines itself by the trees in which it lives.

However the incredible size of these trees is not the only reason they take such a prominent place in Wookiee society. The wroshyr is central to virtually all aspects of wookiee life. There are over one thousand varieties of wroshyr on Kashykk, yet they are universally useful and utilized by the wookiees. The wookiees can and do harvest drinking water from the trees, as well as carving out shelters within the still living trees. Uninhabited trees are often harvested for supplemental building materials as well as for timber for off world export. The leaves and bark are utilized in a similar manner, producing everything from textiles to weapons to food. The sap of the tree is often collected and used in medicines and beverages. Additionally the leaves and sap can be distilled to produce fuel, oils, and other useful chemicals. When one begins to understand the bounty these trees provide it becomes much clearer why the Wookiees so strongly identify with them. These trees are literally the source of all Wookiee life and prosperity.

Another interesting point in regards to the wroshyr trees is that when two or more limbs meet they join together and become one, which provides the foundation for the wookiee arboreal cities as well as their canopy level ‘road system.’ Symbolically this phenomenon has an even greater role in wookiee society. When two families or tribes wish to join together as friends or allies they select two trees equidistant between them and join their limbs together. As these trees join and become one, the wookiees see themselves as becoming one with each other. The wookiees identify so strongly with the trees from which so much of their prosperity and basic needs come from that when their tree becomes joined to another, they see themselves as joined as well.

The wroshyr trees also provide the wookiees with a place of exile and a test of adulthood. The wookiees do not often venture below the canopy level of the wroshyrs, known as the Shadowlands, but when a young wookiee wishes to take his place as an adult of the community he or she will undertake a ritual excursion to the lower levels of the wroshyr forest. Around the age of twelve a young wookiee undergoes the hrrtayyk ceremony, which most closely translates to Basic as “Test of Ascension.” This ritual is a test of the young wookiee's abilities to survive by avoiding predators, making rope, living off the land, and being familiar enough with the wroshyr forest that they could contribute to the community. A particular badge of honor during this test was to harvest the fibers from a highly dangerous carnivorous plant known as the Syren plant. The plant lured creatures in with pheromones excreted by its central fibers and if any part of its inner surface were touched the outer petals would snap closed killing the creature or severing a limb, which in the Shadowlands could have the same effect. Those that harvested the Syren fibers and returned though were looked at with great respect and they often wove the fibers into some article of clothing to be worn as a sign of virility and prowess.

The deepest layer of the Shadowlands, which is at ground level, never sees the light of day due to the enormous foliage above it, the thick canopy, and kilometers of overlapping growth. This area serves as the ultimate punishment in Wookiee society. Whenever a member of the community has committed a heinous crime or violated a strong taboo, they are banished to the Shadowlands, sometimes for a period of time, sometimes forever. In practice however either option usually yields the same result, the death of the exiled one. The Shadowlands are incredibly dangerous and only the desperate or foolhardy ever venture there willingly. This eliminates a need for any sort of penal system for the wookies. Once again, the wroshyr trees provide the solution. Some wookies have been known to survive their exile and return as members of society but it is very rare. Other individuals have even willingly entered the Shadowlands to hide from pursuers though even fewer of them have returned. Offworlders are often the most foolish in this regard and go seeking rare plants or animals for trade and often gather just enough before perishing to the area’s dangers to keep more trying.

Kashyyyk: The Wookiee World

The home world of the wookiees, Kashyyyk is located in the Mid Rim, inside the Mytaranor sector, in the Kashykk System. Kashyyyk is considered a trade hub and is located at the intersection of six hyperspace trade routes. Kashyyyk orbits a single sun in a perfectly circular orbit and has no axial tilt. This peculiar astronomical phenomenon leads to Kashyyyk having only one season, which most planets would classify as late spring to early summer. Kashyyyk is itself orbited by two moons. Kashyyyk’s rotational speed gives it a 26 hour day and its path around the sun gives it a 381 day year. Its atmosphere is oxygen based and breathable by humans. The primary form of terrain, as mentioned earlier is heavy rainforest, though it is sixty percent covered by water, and also has regions of swamp and mountainous terrain. There are even a few deserts in the rain shadow areas of the mountain ranges. The sentient population of Kashyyyk is entirely wookiee and numbers at forty five million as of the last galactic census. Almost all industry is tied to the wroshyr trees native to Kashykk, though some herding of the native varieties of bantha occurs, and there is a small tourism industry focusing primarily on “adventure vacations” and hunting. The major exports of Kashyyyk are electronic components and natural resources, while the major imports are medicines and processed metals. Kashyyyk is currently a member of the New Republic, it was in the past been a part of the Empire. During the Imperial period Kashyyyk, as well as its colonies was a major exporter of slave labor.

Part 2: Wookiee History

Wookies: Origin of the Species

There is some disagreement among scholars and among the wookies themselves as to their origin. Most scholars believe that wookies originated on Kashyyyk, however some legends among the wookies claim the Wookies were placed on Kashyyyk by the Infinite Empire and originated elsewhere. This theory also cites the presence of wroshyr trees on Alaris as evidence that the Infinite Empire was involved. However no concrete proof exists of this so most scholars place Wookiee origins on Kashyyyk. However, the minority theory claims that the Infinite Empire settled Kashyyyk with the Wookiees as an agricultural world and upon their downfall left the Rakatan machinery which encouraged rampant growth operational, which resulted in the overabundance of flora that covers Kashykk.

In 4,020 BBY Kashyyyk was ‘discovered’ by the Czerka Corporation, who promptly set about enslaving the Wookiees and renamed the planet G5-623. After a poll of Czerka stockholders, the planet was renamed Edean. In 3,956 BBY, the wookiees revolted with the assistance of Revan and his wookiee companion Zaalbar. The wookies drove all outsiders off the planet other than Revan and Zaalbar’s group during this revolt and returned to the name Kashyyyk and their original culture.

Sometime after this the wookies reverse engineered a hyperdrive from a crashed Trandoshan vessel and entered the galaxy at large. The wookiees joined the Republic through dealings with the Corellians, Alderanians and Verpine.

During the War of the Fittest, Kashyyyk was once again conquered, this time by the Brotherhood of Darkness, led by Lord Kaan. The wookiees were eventually freed by the Jedi Lord Valenthyne Farfalla. Few historical details exist concerning the wookies from the end of this period until the years just before the end of the Old Republic.

The Modern Era

At the outset of the Clone Wars, Kashyyyk remained unaligned in the conflict between the Old Republic and the Separatists. In 22 BBY the Confederacy tested the Force Harvester, a part of the Dark Reaper Superweapon on the wookiee tribes that had colonized Alaris Prime. The Confederacy was driven from Alaris by Anakin Skywalker and Republic forces. With this threat to the Kashyyyk system removed. The wookiees maintained their neutrality. Only a year later however, Prince Rikummee was accidentally killed by Confederacy battle droids due to a tactical error on the part of General Grievous. His father King Grakchawwaa, who had initially advocated a continuing neutrality to his fellow kings in the Wookiee Royal Families led the wookiees into the war on the side of the Republic.

In 19 BBY The Republic sent a crack unit of Republic Commandos called Delta Squad led by Jedi General Etain Tur-Mukan to Kashyyyk to rescue a wookiee Chieftan by the name of Tarfful from Trandoshan captors who had allied with the Confederacy. During the course of this rescue operation it rapidly became clear that the ties between the Confederacy and Trandosha were much stronger than the Republic had realized and that the Trandoshans and Separatists were planning a full scale invasion of Kashyyyk using overwhelming numbers. Delta Squad got this information to the Republic which promptly dispatched a task force led by Jedi Master Yoda to assist the wookies. The combined forces of Republic troops and wookie warriors managed to repel the invaders, but casualties were high, particularly among the wookiees.

Shortly after this battle, the Republic became the Empire. Under Imperial rule Kashyyyk was again renamed, this time as Wookiee Planet C and placed under martial law. A small group[ of Jedi fled to Kashykk in the wake of Order 66 in order to find the jedi they believed were still there. Darth Vader pursued them and after some of his clone troopers were shot down attempting to land, he ordered the planet bombarded. Huge sections of Kasykk’s forests were set alight and the wookies fled into the remaining forest and also into space. The Empire occupied the planet and Moff Wilhuff Tarkin who had participated in the battle set up an operation on Kashyyyk to capture wookiees to be exported as slave labor on Despayre, where the first Death Star was being constructed.

During the Imperial period on Kashyyyk, the Imperial garrison was commanded by Moff Darcc who had the Avatar Orbital Platform constructed to assist in the enslavement of the wookiees. Moff Darcc also appointed a Trandoshan by the name of Pekt to oversee all the Imperial slaving operations. The wookiees were briefly freed after the Battle of Endor and succeeded in repulsing an attack by the Nagai with New Republic help, however shortly after the Empire reasserted its dominance on Kashyyyk and returned the wookiees to their previous state of enslavement. In 5ABY rebel operatives succeeded in inciting a successful revolution on Kashyyyk, during this uprising Moff Darcc, Pekt, and Grand Admiral Syn were all killed.

Kashyyyk quickly joined with the fledgling New Republic and became a signatory member of the New Republic Inner Council and thus an influential player in New Republic politics.

Conclusion

The wookiees have been a strong and vibrant culture from the early days of the Old Republic, and though they have always been thought of as savage or barbaric this is just not true. The Wookiees do however have a long history of succumbing to invasion and being used as slave labor for more powerful groups. Though they are certainly strong, skilled with technological matters, and have a fearsome reputation as warriors they have repeatedly demonstrated an inability to repulse outside groups who wish to conquer and exploit them. The new position in the Inner Council of the New Republic has gained them some much needed influence to prevent this in the future, but once again, the wookiees are only as strong as those they serve.