Marasan The Marasans were sentients indigenous to Marasai , a planet deep within the Marasa Nebula . They were notable for their extensive use of cyborg implants . Biology and appearance . Marasans were descended from large , herbivorous marsupials . They had small eyes , which were supplemented by the pair of sensory stalks growing from near the corners of their large mouths . They had long , thin arms , short , thick legs , and stubby tails . They were most easily recognized by the thin silver band of cybernetic hardware which wrapped around the back of their heads . Society and culture . Highly sophisticated navigation computers were required to chart courses between the Marasa Nebula ' s thirteen systems . Marasan navigators linked their brains directly to their navigation computers , finding " anchorpoint s " in the nebula to guide their way . The use of these implants spread throughout Marasan society , until almost all Marasans used implanted computers in their daily lives . Aside from astrogation , these computers allowed them to solve complex problems twice as fast as other species , control mindless machines which performed a variety of tasks , and communicate silently with one another over a one hundred meter range . The Marasan government consisted of elected officials , known as Electnode s , whose implanted computers linked with their constituents and one another in a network called the Mindnet . Their leader , the Grand Daern , collected and collated information from each Electnode to make decisions . As each Electnode had instant access to communication and could process data swiftly , their government was very efficient . The speed at which these implants operated did lead to certain negative side effects : their tendency to think faster than they could move made them clumsy . Their reliance on cybernetic communication meant that their speech was often garbled , especially since they thought much faster than they could speak . When speaking with non - Marasans , they sometimes came off as tactless , or at least quirky , since they would begin to speak before fully considering what they were saying . History . Their home in the Marasa Nebula shrouded them from the rest of the galaxy , as the nebula ' s energized gas forced the Trellen Trade Route to avoid the region entirely . Isolated , the Marasans developed a peaceful society on their homeworld , developing advanced mathematics in order to understand the sometimes bizarre weather of a planet in the midst of a cosmic storm . Mathematics soon led to advanced technology , including hyperdrives which allowed their starships to travel through the surrounding nebula . The isolation of the Marasans ended when the Galactic Empire sent probe droids into the nebula , searching for mineral resources and a possible shortcut for the Trellen Trade Route . When they found an advanced civilization , the Empire decided to force the Marasans to help them . Ordinary methods of coercion led to mixed results , and the protein - based bio - memory systems in their computers made it hard for Imperial scientists to simply duplicate Marasan astrogational technology . Instead , the Imperial engineer Umak Leth developed devices called " resonator s " which disrupted the Marasans ' implanted computers , causing them immense pain . These weapons ranged in size from hand - held devices which would incapacitate a single Marasan to siege weapons which could torture an entire Marasan planet . The Marasan Mindnet was forced to capitulate , and was stripped of power . Of the pre - Imperial conquest population of twelve billion Marasans , only a few hundred managed to escape Imperial custody to seek help for their people . Grand Daern Derra ' makin stayed in the Marasa Nebula , but went into hiding on one of the colony worlds . The Alliance to Restore the Republic was aware of their plight early in the Galactic Civil War , but they were uncertain how they could help without exposing the entire Marasan species to collective punishment .