Aqualish / Legends The Aqualish were tusked bipeds from the planet Ando whose appearance combined aspects of arachnids and pinniped aquatic mammals . Aqualish had a reputation for being nasty , crude and aggressive , and generally pursued off - world careers as mercenaries , bounty hunters , and pirates . One of the most infamous such Aqualish was the smuggler Ponda Baba . Biology and appearance . An amphibious species native to the planet Ando , the Aqualish people were made up of three distinct races which included the Aquala , the Ualaq and the Quara . Although they all had their differences , their baseline genetic structure was the same and their appearances did not vary so drastically as to characterize them as different species . All Aqualish had two facial tusks which curved down over their mouths ; a trait which added to their appearance as arachnids . Indeed , the Aqualish had some arachnid genetic material in their distant past , as demonstrative in their relationship with the Harch species . These facial tusks were highly sensitive to heat and cold and were used for cracking open the hard shells of shellfish or burrowing through the swampy loam of their homeworld . These species are well known for their hair - trigger tempers that flare without reason . Anthropologists believe that the streak of rage can be dated back to the species ' earliest evolutions . The Aquala subspecies was considered to be the baseline Aqualish breed . Having finned hands and two bulbous black eyes , the Aquala were unable to manipulate most machinery or equipment developed by the galaxy ' s many species which designed these tools for beings with digits . As a result , Aquala tended to remain on their homeworld in greater numbers than either of the other subspecies . The Aquala hated their Quara relatives , which was characteristic of each of the subspecies shared a hatred of each other as they believed their race to be the most superior . The Quara had developed clawed , five - fingered hands and like the Aquala had two eyes . Combined with the Ualaq , the Quara made up only ten percent of the Aqualish population . This was due to their ability to use equipment off - world designed for fingered species ; Thus , they were the subspecies more commonly found off - world . The Ualaq , considered by some specialists to be the result of , had four eyes instead of two and fingered hands which varied from three to five digits on each . The least common subspecies , the Ualaq often times journeyed far from Ando to avoid discrimination by the Aquala . Society and culture . The Aquala hated their Quara relatives , as they blamed them for the image the Aqualish had in the galaxy as thugs . Because of this , the latter subspecies were considered pariahs on Ando , which had a lower population of Aqualish than the galaxy itself . All three Aqualish subspecies spoke mutually intelligible dialects of the same language . Quarrelsome and thug - like , the Aqualish culture revolved around aggression and toughness , with diplomacy being one of their weakest attributes . History . The Aqualish evolved into three races which were constantly at war with each other : the Aquala , the baseline race of the oceans , the Quara of the wetlands , and the Ualaq of the caves and dark rain forests . Each race believed they were the dominant branch , and allegations leveled by the Aquala that the other two races caused a decline in the harvests of fish eventually escalated into the Aqualish Civil War . In a shocking turn of events , the war ultimately ended in a treaty which saw the unification of all three races . After the war ended , a group of Human settlers stumbled upon the world and were killed by the startled and aggressive Aqualish . Confiscating the ship which brought the supposed invaders to the world , the Aqualish extrapolated the secrets of space travel from the exploratory craft and set forth on a campaign of conquest to the neighboring world of Andando . Not long after the landing , Andando was left a smoldering ruin , rendered inhospitable by the barbarous Aqualish . Discovered by the Galactic Republic during the Great Manifest Period , envoys attempted to make contact with the inhabitants of Ando and were rebuked with hostile fire . This quickly led to the Aqualish – Republic War that , while bloody , quickly ended in the defeat of the Aqualish . Defeated , Ando joined the Republic in 15 , 000 BBY and began an era of colonization which resulted in the formation of the Andoan Free Colonies ; an event concurrent with the Ando separation . Due to the constant violence erupting across the world , however , the Republic dispatched the Ando Demilitarization Observation Group to ensure the de - escalation of violence ; Master Jorus C ' baoth of the Jedi Order served as one of the group ' s primary observers . Represented in the Galactic Senate by Po Nudo before the Separatist Crisis , the world seceded in 23 BBY along with Sy Myrth , a move contested by the Andoan Free Colonies , which retained representation in the Senate under Gorothin Vagger . Nudo became a prominent Separatist leader and a member of the Separatist Council . As the Clone Wars spread across the galaxy , a civil war broke out between both Nudo and Vagger ' s factions of Aqualish . Despite assistance from the Grand Army of the Republic and Jedi Master Shaak Ti , the battle ended in a Separatist victory . When the Galactic Empire rose to power at the end of the war , former Separatist worlds suffered heavily from intense Imperial scrutiny . Appointing an Aquala Senator to replace the recently murdered Nudo , the Senator served until the disbanding of the Imperial Senate in 0 BBY . Establishing an Imperial garrison on Ando , the Imperials ravaged the world ' s natural resources , using them to further the Empire ' s war machine . Following the death of Emperor Palpatine , Ando joined the New Republic only to fall into the sight of one of Grand Admiral Mitth ' raw ' nuruodo ' s feint attacks in preparation for his attack on Ukio . Sending the " Bellicose " in 9 ABY , the world was taken by Thrawn ' s confederation . During the Yuuzhan Vong War , Ando was attacked by the invaders but was issued an ultimatum : surrender a member of the Jedi Order and destroy all droids on the planet and the Yuuzhan Vong would leave in peace . The Aqualish quickly turned on visiting Jedi Knight Dorsk 82 , but this was ignored by Warmaster Tsavong Lah and an invasion and occupation of their planet ensued , enslaving the race to the foreign invaders . After the war ' s end , the Yuuzhan Vong abandoned the planet , thus freeing the Aqualish from occupation . Ando remained independent and disunited , and therefore never joined the Galactic Alliance . As of 137 ABY , Ando was a member of Darth Krayt ' s Galactic Empire . Aqualish in the galaxy . While originally confined to their homeworld , contact with the Galactic Republic opened up space transit for the Aqualish and the colonization of the Andoan Free Colonies . A community of Whiphids and Aqualish lived on the planet Gertafuu VI , trading with exotic foodstuff and furs . There were also a number of Aqualish in Bartyn ' s Landing , the capital town of Lamaredd , c . 29 BBY . While Forceful Aqualish were quite rare , members of the species did go on to train in both the Jedi Order and the Sith Empire . During the Jedi Civil War , an Aqualish acolyte attempted to become initiated in the ways of the Sith on Korriban but was ultimately dissuaded by Jedi Master Revan . Millennium later , two Quara were trained as Jedi ; both Windo Nend and an able Jedi pilot were killed during the Clone Wars . Behind the scenes . In one of " A New Hope " best - known continuity errors , Ponda Baba ' s arm has fin - like hands when still attached , but is hairy and clawed in the close - up shots of the severed arm on the floor . This inspired the writers at West End Games to develop the Aquala and Quara types of Aqualish . " " retcon ned the error by creating a new character , Teak Sidbam , said to be sometimes mistaken for Baba . When Aqualish characters appeared in the prequel trilogy , more detailed , four - eyed masks — Ualaq masks — were used . In the game files ( Kotor Tool ) of " " , the Quara Aqualish are referred to as " walrusmen " .