Kurtzen The Kurtzen were a pale , hairless , humanoid species from the planet Bakura . They were the only sentients native to the world ; few in number , they became a minority when Human settlers arrived in 150 BBY . Kurtzen suffered from a degenerative genetic disorder that limited their population growth . Although medicine provided by the Human settlers helped them overcome the disease , Kurtzen comprised only five percent of Bakura ' s population by 4 ABY . Despite this , it was unusual for more than two children in a family to reach adulthood . Kurtzen society was divided into tribes and clans . The Kurtzen were peaceful nomads with stone - age technology when first encountered by Human representatives of the Bakur Mining Corporation . Kurtzen religious beliefs centered on a universal life force that could be channeled via clothing and personal effects called totems or life trinket s ; scholars speculated that such beliefs developed as a response to population decline . However , by the time of the Galactic Civil War , younger Kurtzen were largely abandoning their old ways in favor of adopting Bakuran Human culture . Indeed , the Kurtzen were extremely grateful for having received medical and technological assistance from the Bakuran Humans , and they gained representation in the newcomers ' government . At the time of the Invasion of Bakura , two out of the forty members of the Bakuran Senate were Kurtzen . Most of the Kurtzen population was concentrated in the Kishh district on the continent of Braad , and after Human colonization , the uninhabited eastern continent of Kishh ' daar was reserved for Kurtzen settlement once their numbers warranted it . Biology and appearance . The Kurtzen were a species of sentients with a humanoid anatomy consisting of a head , a torso , and four limbs . Their hands featured five digits apiece , one of which was an opposable thumb ; the tip of each finger was capped by a fingernail , and the hands could grow callused with hard work . The Kurtzen ' s white skin was free of hair , which made it shiny in at least some members of the species . The height of an adult member of the species ranged from 1 . 2 to 1 . 7 meters , with 1 . 5 meters being the average . The Kurtzen face was largely humanoid , with two eyes above the protruding nose . Below this was a horizontal mouth ; two ears grew at the sides of the head . The nose was broad and relatively flat . The top of the head was covered in thick , knobby protrusions of skin that grew in rows from the back of the forehead to the crown . Kurtzen were able to breath Type 1 oxygen – nitrogen atmospheres . Their diet included the meat of ungulate species native to their homeworld , Bakura . Their digestive tract allowed a Kurtzen to swallow a large object and pass it within a single day . The Kurtzen had at least one sex , male . They suffered from a high rate of infant mortality ; usually no more than two children survived to adulthood per family , even with access to advanced medical care . Kurtzen were considered old at age 60 . Society and culture . Kurzen were known for their mild temperament , quiet demeanor , and non - confrontational attitude . For much of their history , they divided themselves into tribes and clans that trekked through the forests of the planet Bakura as nomads with stone - age technology . These groups roamed from one camp to another following their prey , herds of ungulate species . Kurtzen families were close , and Kurtzen celebrated when good things happened to kin . Religion . Traditional Kurtzen culture was profoundly religious . Their spirituality emphasized the concentration of life energies into small , physical items , known as totems or life trinket s . By keeping these objects close , a Kurtzen invited good fortune . The objects were used to draw in a particular type of energy thought to be lacking internally . Conversely , a Kurtzen who was surrounded by the wrong sorts of objects invited negative energies into the body that could bring harm . The ultimate goal of these practices was to bring the internal body into balance with the external world . Scholars theorized that this philosophy of channeling invisible forces grew to prominence when the Kurtzen population first entered a period of population decline . Shamans served Kurtzen communities as religious leaders . Rituals intended to heal the sick similarly operated on the principle of bringing the body into harmony with its environment . In one healing ceremony , witnessed by the Shi ' ido Senior Anthropologist Mammon Hoole , a shaman prayed over an ailing boy while others circled the individual and chanted . When the patient ' s eyes opened wide and glazed over , the shaman placed a totem in the boy ' s mouth , which he swallowed . When the totem later passed , the shaman averred , the disease passed with it . In another ritual , witnessed by the Human Jedi Knight Leia Organa Solo in 28 ABY , the healer was not a shaman but the Kurtzen maintenance worker Arrizza , who endeavored to cleanse the spirit of the Jedi Knight Tahiri Veila . He first closed his eyes and clasped a totem in his hands , entering a trance . Speaking an incantation " sotto voce " as he worked , Arrizza placed the totem on the patient ' s forehead and chest , bowed , deeply inhaled , exhaled , and backed away . The Kurtzen noted that the healing could take as little as an hour , or as long as a year — or that it might not work at all . Organa Solo noticed that Arrizza ' s mental signature changed when he fell into a trance state . Kurtzen clothing was designed to enhance the wearer ' s openness to spiritual forces , channeling energy from the exterior into the wearer ' s inner being . Thus , their taste in clothing ran toward neutral - colored garments , including sleeveless and short - sleeved robes and tunics , aprons , trousers , and boots . The airiness and openness of these garments and their color were all intended to attract the universal power of life to the wearer . The typical Kurtzen wore a belt around the waist made of a broad strip of animal skin and containing multiple pouches . These could hold totems important for religious and tribal purposes . They wore clothing made from patched leather as well . Some Kurtzen wrapped their wrists in bands . Cultural change . After their world was colonized by Humans , many Kurtzen began to abandon their own ways for those of the newcomers . Thus , by 3 ABY , much of their tribal culture was becoming endangered . The change manifested most strongly between the older and younger generations . While adults and elders endeavored to preserve the old ways , many younger Kurtzen had little interest in such practices , preferring instead what the Kurtzen considered " Core World philosophies . " The same applied to the technology introduced by the offwordlers ; most Kurtzen older than sixty were uncomfortable with equipment introduced from the greater galaxy . The exceptions were droids , which almost all Kurtzen distrusted , and advanced medical care , which Kurtzen recognized as essential to their continued survival . In fact , the medical aid given the species by the Human colonists made the Kurtzen devoutly loyal to the Bakuran Humans . Because Bakurans in general distrusted droids , some Kurtzen took on menial tasks that , on other worlds , were normally reserved for such automatons . These jobs including sanitation work , an occupation that required the use of hostile environment suits with clog - prone coolant lines . After Bakura ' s Human colonists established their own government on the world , they offered the Kurtzen representation in their Senate . The Kurtzen retained a degree of control over the Kishh district of the Braad continent , their native region , although they were still expected to adhere to Bakuran law and , during the regime of the Galactic Empire , Imperial law . While the Bakuran colonists distrusted most non - Humans , they trusted the Kurtzen . The species largely abandoned its nomadism and established settlements in the district . By 28 ABY , certain Kurtzen had come to feel like social outcasts on Bakura , relegated to inferior status in the Human - dominated society . The Kurtzen spoke a language named for them , but they were also capable of speaking Galactic Basic Standard . History . The Kurtzen evolved on the planet Bakura , where they developed a stone - age tribal culture based on forest nomadism . Due to their homeworld ' s remote location in the Wild Space region known as the Shiritoku Spur , the Kurtzen remained the sole sentient denizens of their world until 153 BBY . That year , Human scouts discovered deposits of metal and crystal and decided Bakura was a prime site for colonization . Beginning in 16 BBY , the Kurtzen were suffering from high levels of sickness and malnutrition , as well as a genetic disorder exacerbated by their small population . The Bakur Mining Corporation offered the Kurtzen a deal : access to advanced medicine and technology in exchange for land and permission to mine . The Kurtzen gladly agreed . In 150 BBY , Human colonists chartered by the Bakur Corporation arrived to establish a mining settlement . The offworlders brought new technology with them , including droids . However , the droids rebelled — an event later referred to as the Bakura Droid Uprising — and the Kurtzen learned to forever distrust mechanicals . Nevertheless , the Humans ' technology nullified the genetic disorder and allowed Kurtzen populations to recover . The arrival of the offworlders had other unintended effects , however . The Kurtzen largely abandoned their nomadism , for instance , establishing settlements in the Kissh district of the Braad continent . Meanwhile , subsequent generations maintained fewer and fewer of their traditions such that , by 4 ABY , the elders feared their children would abandon Kurtzen culture entirely . The elders thus instigated a program to preserve the old ways and teach them to the children . Bakura was opened to further colonization during the Clone Wars . The Human population joined the Galactic Empire in 1 ABY , and by 4 ABY , the Kurtzen had two senators appointed to the forty - member Bakuran Senate to represent Kishh ; these senators were not allowed to vote on issues that pertained to the Empire , however . The Kurtzen retained sovereignty over Kissh , provided they adhered to Bakuran laws . The Humans also set aside the uninhabited Kishh ' daar continent for Kurtzen settlement for such time when the Kurtzen population warranted it . Despite access to advanced medicine , the Kurtzen numbered fewer than 68 million — only five percent of Bakura ' s population — in 4 ABY . Although the population was slowly increasing , these numbers remained relatively stable even after the fall of the Galactic Empire and the rise of the New Republic . Bakura rejected New Republic membership , but the Kurtzen ' s rights expanded after the end of Imperial rule . Bakura normalized relations with the rest of the galaxy in this period , so medical and technological aid to the Kurtzen increased . The old ways were still active when Senior Anthropologist Mammon Hoole visited Bakura ; his remarks about a Kurtzen healing ritual appeared in the work " The Essential Guide to Alien Species " , which was published after the fall of the Galactic Empire . The species ' totem - based faith was still strong in 28 ABY ; that year , the Kurtzen Arrizza accessorized the environment suit he used as a sanitation worker with a belt of pouches , in which he carried totems . Arrizza became allied with an intelligence organization known as the Ryn Network and with their operative Goure Conor during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the galaxy . In this capacity , Arrizza helped the Jedi Knight Tahiri Veila and Conor infiltrate the Bakuran Senate Complex to access its internal data networks . Arrizza also knew Kurtzen healing rituals , despite his position as a sanitation worker . He performed one such ceremony for Tahiri when she found herself battling her altar - ego , Riina Kwaad — the result of having undergone shaping by the Yuuzhan Vong named Mezhan Kwaad . Arrizza used a pendant to the Yuuzhan Vong god Yun - Yammka as a totem during the ceremony and declared that Tahiri would have to come into equilibrium with the other identity , not exorcise it . Kurtzen in the galaxy . A few Kurtzen left Bakura to explore the rest of the galaxy . For instance , in 8 ABY , a Kurtzen participated in an auction at Mawbo ' s Performance Hall on the planet Tatooine . The Kurtzen attempted to win a holocube that purportedly showed an image of the Human Anakin Skywalker as a nine - year - old boy . The Kurtzen lost a bidding war with the Squib Sligh , working as a proxy for the Human smuggler Han Solo .