Coway The Coway were a primitive race of humanoids that were native to the planet Mimban . Because of their intense dislike of outsiders , they spent most of their lives in the caves beneath the planet ' s fog - shrouded swamps . Coway were bipedal and covered with a fine red down . They had relatively large eyelids and small eyes which were capable of seeing into the infrared spectrum , which they used to survive in the subterranean darkness . A Coway ' s diet typically consisted of fruits , lichens , raw meats and fungus which would be poisonous to them if not for the strong amino acids of his or her digestive system . Compared to the space - age cultures of the rest of the galaxy , the Coway were a primitive lot . Their main technological achievements were fire and weapons made of flowstone . They had little to no sense of higher learning or technology and were fond of charms . They treated death as an inevitable , everyday occurrence . Coway tribes lived in large villages where order was maintained by brute force . Any outsiders who ventured too close would be attacked . Males were dominant in Coway society and each village was ruled by a triumvirate of chiefs who answered only to the will of Canu , a warrior god . If the chiefs encountered gridlock when they attempted to resolve an issue by themselves , they submitted the problem to Canu . Because the Coway believed that Canu demanded strength from his followers , the greatest warriors of the conflicting parties would face each other in single combat until one quit or died . The winner of the contest would be presumed to be favored by Canu and therefore the chiefs would rule in favor of the party that the winner fought for . If the loser had lost because he quit , he and the party that he championed would abide by Canu ' s judgment and pay his respects to him by hitting the winner in the face . The winner was expected to return the favor or else face the prospect of angering Canu — and another physical contest . The largest known Coway village contained a population of at least two hundred . It was located in a large subterranean amphitheater near an ancient Thrella city that was adjacent to a subterranean lake . The village itself contained two Thrella structures that the tribe kept in an outward state of repair at the very least . The cave drawings of the Coway and the pictographs of the Mimbanite s — another intelligent species native to Mimban and genetic cousins of the Coway — were extremely similar to those found in the Temple of Pomojema . This led many New Republic xenoarchaeologists to theorize that the two species and the temple — as well as the ancient civilization that had built it — were connected in some way . The Coway commonly made their way to the surface through Coway shaft s which connected to Thrella well s as well as sinkholes and other openings . During their early days , they could come and go as they pleased . However , when the Galactic Empire discovered that Mimban was rich in dolovite , it established a mining facility on the planet . Rather than be subjugated by the Empire as their genetic cousins would be , the Coway retreated further into the subterranean depths , believing that they could find some refuge from the Empire ' s energy drill s . The Coways ' relative peace was short - lived . The Empire ' s mining operations managed to further disrupt their way of life . The Coway responded by rebelling with occasional acts of unpredictable violence . Sometime after the Imperial presence had been well - established , Coway would only periodically venture into the outskirts of the five mining towns . If they were confronted , they would flee . This behavior led many of the locals and miners to mistakenly believe that the Coway were shy and peaceful .