Taurill Taurill were small , multi - limbed , furry creatures . They scurried about in a way that reminded many sentient beings of vermin . During most of their history , the galactic community considered the Taurill to be a non - sentient or semi - sentient species . However , the Taurill had a hive mind controlled by the Taurill Overmind that gave them full sentience , although an individual Taurill was really only another set of photoreceptors and manipulative organs for the Overmind . When one Taurill noticed something of interest for the Overmind , nearby Taurill ran to analyze that same object from different perspectives , feeding the Overmind with information . At some point before 12 ABY , Durga Besadii Tai , a Hutt crime lord , came across the Taurill and made a deal with the Overmind . As a result , Durga began to travel in the company of a swarm of his supposed pet Taurill , and he sometimes used them as spies or saboteurs . At one point , he even used the Taurill to build a superweapon , the Darksaber , but his scheme was a disaster and ended in the death of the Hutt and all of the Taurill involved in the project . Biology and appearance . The body of a Taurill was covered in gray - brown fur , except for the tail , the head , and the limbs . The head was shaped like a Human skull , except for its two constantly - blinking , big , curious eyes distanced from the head by ommatophora . A Taurill had six jagged , pointed limbs . Four of those appendages were arms , characterized by their malleability and their sturdiness . The other two were commonly used as legs , but in certain situations they could be adjusted to be used as a third set of arms , as was readily apparent when the Taurill ' s movements were seen . Each of the four arms ended in a three - fingered manipulator , while each leg had a pointed , non - fingered end . In addition , a Taurill also had a segmented , arrow - headed tail . Taurill were small creatures that stopped growing once they reached a length of 1 . 20 meters . They were flexible enough to squeeze their bodies if needed to explore through very narrow openings . While the Taurill were simian and indeed retained several physical traits of apes , at the same time they also resembled lice . Society and culture . While there were thousands of individual Taurill , all of them were controlled by a single collective consciousness , known as the Taurill Overmind , or simply Overmind , to the extent that a Taurill " individual " was only a set of sensory and manipulative organs for a single organism that made up the whole species . This could also be expressed in a simplified form by saying that Taurill were " eusocial . " The hive mind was interested in gathering information , using the individual Taurill to do so . The Taurill were thus known to look intently in all available directions , as if they were paranoid , to feed information to the Overmind ; to outsiders , each individual seemed to be trying to gather information for its own interests . The Taurill would swarm over , crawl over , and touch anything or anyone in their range , unless they were met with some resistance . While in this mode , Taurill would move constantly in a vermin - like way . Taurill were also known to race around . At least some individual Taurill had names , as was the case of Bortis . Individual Taurill did not have independent thoughts , recognizable emotions , or abstract motivations , leading to the species being classified as semi - sentient . However , considering the hive mind , the Taurill fulfilled the requirements of sentience . Users of the Force scanning the Taurill for intelligence only felt weak , blurred impressions from the collective mind . As discovered by scientist Mammon Hoole , a Taurill had to be near a collective of other Taurill to receive instructions from the Overmind . Should a Taurill be far enough from the group — a rare circumstance under normal conditions — its body would stop moving , as the brain would have stopped to send it any orders . Although the body would remain biologically alive , it would eventually die of hunger or dehydration and would take no independent measure to feed itself . When Taurill did eat , their diet included shag fern s . History . First contact . While the native planet of the Taurill was unknown , the species was already known — and labeled non - sentient — in the later years of the Old Republic . In 22 BBY , the individual Taurill Bortis showed a systematic skill to play the sport known as greenputt which , along with the discovery of capable neek players , led to the creation of the Non - Sentient Professional Greenputt Tour . At some point , a xenobiologist working as a scout discovered the hive mind of this species while researching in the Outer Rim Territories . This individual sold this information to Durga Besadii Tai , a young Hutt crime lord . Planning to obtain a profit from the Taurill , Durga killed the scout to protect the secret , and then approached the Taurill to make a deal . The Hutt offered power and wealth , but the Overmind declined , as it had no need for fortune . The Overmind instead asked Durga to scatter individual Taurill throughout the galaxy , allowing the Overmind to grow . Durga readily accepted and was assigned thousands of Taurill . The Hutt trained the creatures to behave as his pets and to run whenever he clapped his hands . The creatures proved themselves excellent pets . Stealing the Death Star plans . In 12 ABY , Durga visted Chief of State Leia Organa Solo of the New Republic in Coruscant as a cover to steal the schemes of the first Death Star from the Imperial Palace . Durga was to be in the company of ninety - eight Taurill that had already received specific instructions of how to behave . The creatures , being from an uncommon species , surprised Organa Solo and her companions , an effect not repeated by the appearance of Durga ' s Gamorrean slave entourage . When directly asked about the creatures , Durga mentioned that they were harmless , semi - sentient pets . During the meeting , the Hutt signaled for the Taurill to disperse , claiming that Organa Solo seemed to be distracted by the moving creatures crawling on Durga ' s body . Following their orders , two particular Taurill struggled with a guard , trying to seize his ceremonial rifle . One of the aliens tried to push himself in the barrel while the other " accidentally " pulled the trigger , killing his companion with a resounding blast . The guard was astonished at the situation and Durga pretended to be surprised . The remaining Taurill scattered , apparently scared at the explosion , with some of its fellows hiding in shadows , pieces of furniture , doors or ducts . Durga again pretended to be worried about his pets and ordered the guards to capture all of them . The New Republic guards and Organa Solo ' s droid C - 3PO began tracking the Taurill , as the Gamorreans proved to be inept for this task . Predictably , this endeavor took several minutes . Meanwhile , three Taurill took advantage of the chaos to reach the Imperial Information Center , in a lower level of the palace , dodging guard droids and accessing a computer terminal . Using special codes provided by Durga , they accessed secret information , saved it in a small data cylinder and hid it in the fur of one of the creatures . The Overmind instantly knew of their success and reported to Durga using another Taurill , one that had been " re - captured " by the Hutt . Durga then ordered one of his assistants to blow an instrument to supposedly soothe the Taurill and summon them . Once the Taurill had been gathered , the Gamorreans attempted to count them , but their skills were limited and they required C - 3PO ' s help . Durga attempted to blame Organa Solo for the accident , but she refused to accept culpability and instead accused Durga of bringing uncontrollable pets to diplomatic meetings . Constructing the Darksaber . Soon afterward , C - 3PO found Taurill fur in the keyboard the Taurill spy had used . Along with R2 - D2 , the protocol droid discovered the crime performed by the Taurill and reported to Organa Solo . After this , the Chief of State wrote a report explaining the situation and the Taurill incident and decided to send a military team to deal with Durga ' s scheme . Meanwhile , two of Durga ' s allies , General Sulamar and Doctor Bevel Lemelisk , used the stolen information to build a new superweapon in the safe environment of the Hoth asteroid field . Lemelisk developed the design and trained two individual Taurill to build it , having been told that the whole workforce would get the same knowledge , and provided them with customized space suits . As the Taurill worked harder than common sentient workers , Lemelisk estimated that they would build the superweapon faster than any other workforce . The Taurill began to work as a swarm , following Lemelisk ' s outlines . While the Taurill workers appeared to be productive , enthusiastic builders , they were easily distracted : any novelty , such as a nearby moving asteroid or visible starship , attracted the Overmind ' s attention , who then sent individual Taurill to catch a new perspective of whatever it was . Once the event was over , the individuals took up their jobs again , but they did not return to their intended positions , and as such parts of the Darksaber ' s construction was incorrect . Because of the species ' short attention span , the computer core was connected to a thermal exhaust port , the superlaser anchor points were offset ninety degrees from each other , and several beams were welded to inappropriate places . Lemelisk discovered this disaster but decided to not report it to Durga , as the Hutt could easily blame Lemelisk . Instead , Lemelisk doubled the Taurill shift and supervised them to solve the mistakes . This was achieved in two days . Soon after , Durga required Lemelisk ' s presence on Nar Shaddaa . Durga believed the Taurill were performing nicely and Lemelisk could not correct him without risking his wrath . Thus , Lemelisk told Sulamar about the situation . In Lemelisk ' s absence , Sulamar worked to keep under control the delays caused by Taurill ' s short attention span . The superweapon turned out to be useless due to the Taurill ' s faulty work and the defective materials used in the construction ; Lemelisk noted that anyone with a training in technology would have been aware of the weapon ' s flaws , and only managed to keep a timetable by writing false results . He eventually declared the construction finished , and the Taurill stopped working , instead simply inhabiting the inner rooms of the so - called Darksaber . Several New Republic agents infiltrated the Darksaber , but one of them , General Crix Madine , was captured and taken to Durga at the weapon ' s bridge . Durga then executed Madine , with several Taurill intently watching until Lemelisk shooed them away . The Taurill went back to other decks . Durga , still believing that his Taurill had done a good job , attempted to use the Darksaber to destroy an asteroid . The Darksaber did not work and was destroyed by the collision of two planetoids against its frame . Durga died , taking all of the Taurill on board with him . At some point after the Darksaber episode , Mammon Hoole included an entry on the Taurill in his publication " The Essential Guide to Alien Species " . Taurill in the galaxy . In the times of the Old Republic , the existence of Taurill was known to the general public , as exemplified by Bortis . At that point , the Taurill were believed to be non - sentient . Only after Durga discovered the hive mind and made a deal with the Taurill did they have a chance to expand throughout the galaxy as was the Overmind ' s wish . From that point onward , the Taurill were mostly seen as Durga ' s personal pets . The collective mind of the Taurill was an important advantage when trying to create a unified Taurill workforce : the foreman only had to train one Taurill , and all of available Taurill would take advantage of that training . Although the Taurill would then work tirelessly , moved by an untiring Overmind , they were easily distracted , which could lead to spoiled work . Other limitations included the inability to develop advanced technology themselves , and their strange appearance that could confound the foreman . Behind the scenes . The Taurill first appeared in the novel " Darksaber " , written by Kevin J . Anderson , and first published in 1995 . They were later mentioned in Stephen J . Sansweet ' s " Star Wars Encyclopedia " in 1998 . The species was first graphically depicted in " The Essential Chronology " in 2000 with an illustration by Bill Hughes . In " " , the narrator compares a character ' s eyes moving with Taurill racing about . Had it been said by a character it would have meant that at that point , knowledge about Taurill was more extended . The Taurills were also mentioned in " , " an article written by Pablo Hidalgo and appearing on the official Star Wars site in 2008 . The novel " Darksaber " does not specify the moment when Durga met the Taurill . As Durga was born in 105 BBY , this could have happened before the events told in the website HoloNetNews about Bortis , dated in 22 BBY . However , Durga was known to have been considered a pre - adult until 5 BBY ; thus , it is unlikely that he could make such important deals and decisions before that point . " The Essential Guide to Alien Species " unambiguously lists the height of an adult Taurill as 1 . 20 meters . However , in " Darksaber " , Leia Organa Solo considers that one of those creatures has the approximate size of her forearm . " The Essential Chronology " provides a picture of the Taurill building the " Darksaber " and apparently surviving in a vacuum without the pressure suit Lemelisk provides them in the novel , directly contradicting that story .