Sanyassan The Sanyassans were a reptilian , humanoid species from the stormy world of Sanyassa IV , located in the Inner Zuma Region . They had ape - like faces , scaly skin , and a tall stature that averaged two meters in height . They engaged in piracy as the scourge of their native Moddell sector since ancient times . In the wider galaxy , the sentients had the reputation of being fierce fighters with short tempers and minimal intelligence . They were sometimes employed as bodyguards or mercenaries , and at least one of them , Tun - Badon , pledged allegiance to a Sith Lord . When the Shi ' ido anthropologist Mammon Hoole wrote his " Essential Guide to Alien Species " at the height of the New Republic , little was known about the Sanyassans , despite their occasional and discreet presence in broader galactic affairs . At the time , the whole species was simply referred to as " Marauders " by most scientists , and few knew of their home planet . On their homeworld , the Sanyassans had only achieved feudal - level technology by the time of the Galactic Civil War , having at least developed a writing system . However , in the distant past , they had been a more advanced civilization , before the Din supernova turned into a pulsar around 5000 BBY . According to the neighboring Ayrou species , that event may have drastically altered the Sanyassans ' way of life . Following the cataclysm , they established a complex social hierarchy , in which pecking order was determined by might . Like the rest of the Moddell sector , the people of Sanyassa IV were excluded from galactic politics for most of their history . In the first century before the Galactic Civil War , a large group of Sanyassan criminals known as the Marauders crash - landed in the forests of the moon of Endor . As they were unable to get off the moon , the Sanyassan Marauders established a colony in the Dragon ' s Pelt savanna , under the leadership of King Terak . In 3 ABY , the Sanyassans of Endor suffered a terrible defeat against the native Ewoks , and their numbers decreased over the years . When the New Republic was established , the government ' s scouts who were sent to the forest moon found no trace of them . Biology and appearance . The Sanyassans were a sentient species with reptilian traits . They were humanoid in form , with four limbs : two legs and two arms . They had two - toed feet , but the number of fingers varied , with Sanyassans having three , four , or five digits per hand , including an opposable thumb . Members of the species had powerfully - built frames . They could grow tall , between 1 . 6 and 2 . 5 meters , with an average of 2 . 0 meters . Sometimes , a congenital disorder resulted in nanism , as exemplified by the General Yavid , who stood only 1 . 1 meters tall . The Sanyassans had tougher hides than most humanoids , which made them more resistant to physical or energetic damage . Their skin was both leathery and scaly , and its variety of coloration included gray , brown , green , and yellow . Though much rarer , some pink - and purple - skinned individuals were known to exist . According to Human observers , the Sanyassans ' simian faces were skull - like in appearance , with the skin pulled tautly over the bones , the nose merely two pug - like holes , and their deep - set , forward - facing eyes crowned by jutting brow ridges . Some members of the species exhibited cranial ridges on the parietal bones , and the males often sported tiny spiky growths on the temples . They had high foreheads and relatively small mouths with very thin lips . The fearsome - looking Sanyassans had straggly manes that fell to the shoulders of some specimens . Others were bald , cut their hair short , or wore a single strand of hair styled into a top - knot . Occasionally , hair also grew from the skin of their faces , in the manner of a mustache or a beard , but the Sanyassans had no eyebrows or eyelids . The species usually had Human - like ears , but some individuals had pointed ears akin to those of the Sephi species from Thustra . The species had two sexes : male and female . Sexual dimorphism manifested predominantly in the presence of pronounced breasts in females . Sanyassan women also tended to have smoother skin and did not grow facial hair . Considered children until the age of eight , Sanyassans attained young adulthood when they turned thirteen . At fourteen , they grew out of adolescence and lived out their adulthood for twenty - five years . At forty , a Sanyassan was considered middle - aged , and he or she was viewed as elderly beyond the age of seventy . However , super centenarians were not uncommon , and Sanyassans could maintain their warrior prowess even into their latter years ; the Sanyassan Marauders who shipwrecked on Endor around 96 BBY were still alive a standard century later . Society and culture . At one point in their history , the Sanyassans were thought to have had an advanced society and culture , but those days were long gone by the time of the Galactic Civil War — a conflict fought between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance . In its better known form , the Sanyassan society was divided into clanic structures — united groups of households tracing descent from a common ancestor . The Sanyassans observed no law prohibiting them from preying upon others . There existed a form of aristocracy , but social standing was gained by force , rather than birthright . The Sanyassan upper class consisted mainly of the strongest and tallest individuals and showed strong social prejudices against dwarfs . Their culture was brutal , based on warfare and exploitation of the weak . The species seemed unforgiving , ruthless and calculating to outsiders . In the wider galaxy , these fierce brawlers were renowned for their bad tempers and low intellectual performance . Despite their aggressive nature , the Sanyassans were social beings and did not feel comfortable while alone . They preferred to be in large groups , as when marching out to raid . When not fighting , they enjoyed having arm - wrestling contests , playing cards with each other , feasting in banquet halls , and drinking alcohol while clinking their cups together with loud guffaws . On Endor , most Sanyassan commoners wore makeshift armor and ragged clothing , usually brown or cream in color , adorned with scavenged items and patches of animal fur . Some higher - class individuals possessed more elegant attire , with golden plate pauldrons and forearm guards , flowing bluish - grey capes , quilted vests and cloth belts . The Endorian Sanyassans typically wrapped their feet in rawhide or cloth and tied that on with laces for foot covering . Technologically primitive by galactic standards , Sanyassans formed a feudal - level civilization , with a crude hieroglyphic writing system . They never developed the secrets of space travel for themselves , but stole it from others . They had a rather rudimentary grasp on technology , which caused more harm than good when they tried to use it . For instance , one of the Sanyassan Marauder King Terak ' s goons once poured water over an electrical device , which caused the machine to burst into sparks . As the Sanyassans never achieved space travel themselves , they relied on poor instinctive piloting skills when piloting stolen ships . While they managed to keep their blasters functioning , many were battered and rusted . However , the Sanyassans were proficient in sword - fighting and unarmed combat . Despite their poor intelligence , most Sanyassans could speak a broken form of Galactic Basic Standard , in addition to their native Sanyassan . Sanyassan names were typically one word , with examples including Dranjat , Jorak , Krenna , Kresho , Luryk , Maygo , S ' Zingo , Terakaya , Urkreg , Vortek , and Zaykul . Other known names included Bar ' injar , Indar , Macchbraus , and Yavid . Sanyassans displayed a grim and sadistic sense of humor . King Terak once referred with irony to his Ewok prisoners as his " friends " and " most honored guests , " to which his henchmen all laughed in unison . Members of the species fed off suffering and misery , to the point of falling off their chair , laughing , when they witnessed other people ' s pain . History . The Sanyassans evolved on the world of Sanyassa IV , a temperate planet located in the Moddell sector , one of the three galactic subsectors that made up the Inner Zuma Region of the Zuma sector in the Outer Rim Territories . Like the rest of the worlds in the sector , Sanyassa IV was ignored by the wider galactic community for most of its history , as it was considered a part of the Unknown Regions until the last centuries of the Galactic Republic . Millennia before the Galactic Civil War , the original Sanyassans were a much more advanced society than their descendants . Through time , the Sanyassan culture devolved into a might - makes - right kleptocracy . According to the Ayrou , a peaceful species from the nearby world Maya Kovel , that devolution may have been the consequence of the Din supernova that blew up and turned into a pulsar around 5000 BBY , a cataclysm from which the Sanyassans never fully recovered . For most of their recorded history , the brutal Sanyassans were renowned in their native sector as raiders and pirates . In the first century before 0 BBY ' s Battle of Yavin , one such band of Sanyassan criminals known as the Marauders crashed on the Forest moon of Endor . As their ship was damaged beyond repair , the Marauders settled on the moon . The name " Marauders " was later used as a generic name to describe the entire species , even amongst xenobiologist s . Sanyassans in the galaxy . In the fourth millennium before the Battle of Yavin , a male Sanyassan known as Bar ' injar joined the Crucible , a slave - trading organization founded many years before by Ieldis — a Sith Lord of the Old Empire . During the later stages of the Cold War , an ancient credit chip coming from the treasure hoards of a long - departed Sanyassan warlord was found . That discovery prompted certain galactic citizens to use their slicing skills in hopes of tracing the chip back to the rest of the treasure . However , despite their occasional presence abroad , the Sanyassans were not well known outside their native Moddell sector : millennia later , during the height of the New Republic , Senior Anthropologist Mammon Hoole was still researching the species . Although his notes on Sanyassans were far from complete , Hoole felt they were worth mentioning in " The Essential Guide to Alien Species " , a guide book based on his collected data . In his sketchy notes , Hoole used the nickname " Marauders " for the entire species , as he claimed their true name was unknown , even in scientific circles . Hoole also made no mention of which planet it was from which the Sanyassans hailed . Members of other species knew how to take advantage of the Sanyassans ' cruel nature . The brutish humanoids were armed with the latest weapons and employed as shock trooper s or petty thugs . During the Republic Dark Age , the male Sanyassan Tun - Badon commanded a battalion in the mercenary group Rusher ' s Brigade , under the banner of the Sith Lord Daiman . Centuries later , " Plug - Eye " Maygo , was hired as a bodyguard by the Kintan Gunrunners , a group of Nikto smugglers . When working on their own , Sanyassans typically became scouts or soldiers , though some exceptionally cunning individuals became scoundrel s . Around 96 BBY , the Marauders , a large group of space pirates that consisted of several dozen members , hijacked a spacecraft and struck out to scour the Moddell sector . Unable to operate their advanced vessel , they crash - landed on the Forest Moon of Endor . There , they built themselves a gloomy fortress , ruling over a section of the Endorian plains known as the Dragon ' s Pelt savanna . Those Sanyassans armed themselves with poorly maintained blasters and more conventional weapons . The arms gave the Marauders a technological advantage over most other species on Endor . Amongst the castaway Sanyassans were Terak , the fightmaster Jorak , the scholar Szingo , the smooth - skinned Indar and the diminutive Yavid . Some of the stranded Sanyassans , like Macchbraus , chose not to pledge their loyalty to their fellow Marauders . They were marginalized , and some of them went to live in the Orphaned Marauder ' s Cave , located near the Mertuen Forest . All in all , the number of Sanyassans on Endor never made up more than one percent of its sentient inhabitants . The Sanyassans of Endor domesticated local creatures such as horses and large reptilian blurrgs to use as beast of burden or mounts . The Marauders ' leader was the self - appointed King Terak , who ruled over the others by virtue of his size and strength . He was assisted by Charal , a rogue Dathomiri Nightsister who could turn into a raven thanks to her magic ring . The commander of the Marauder troops was General Yavid , a dwarf Sanyassan who formulated the battle strategies that kept the Marauders ' lands from being overrun . The Marauders were perpetual enemies of the diminutive Ewoks , a species native to Endor whose villages the Marauders frequently raided . At some point , they were also enemies of other local species like the Phlog s and the Duloks . They clashed with Morag the Tulgah witch , although Yavid orchestrated a tentative peace with her at some point . Around the year 26 BBY , the Marauders captured a shipwrecked humanoid scout named Salak Weet . They misunderstood Weet ' s references to the power generator for his ship , thinking he was talking about a mystical power source that could make them rulers of the galaxy . The Marauders imprisoned and eventually killed Weet in an attempt to learn the secret of " the Power . " Some time after the Battle of Hoth , Sergeant Pfilbee Jhorn of the Galactic Empire was requisitioned for Emperor Palpatine ' s second expeditionary mission to Endor . As records officer , Jhorn reported all of the scouting team ' s discoveries , including their encounter with the Marauders , who tortured the Imperials . Jhorn ' s report was one of the most thorough accounts of the Sanyassan Marauders , albeit filled with Humanocentric bias . One year later , during a raid on the Ewok settlement known as Bright Tree Village , the Marauders captured many Ewoks including Wicket Wystri Warrick . They also captured a young Human named Cindel Towani , and killed the rest of her family , who were themselves castaways on Endor . The Marauders also stole the crystal oscillator from the Towanis ' damaged spaceship . Warrick and Towani soon escaped , finding their way to the cottage of Noa Briqualon , Weet ' s Human partner . Warrick and Briqualon ' s friend Teek , a member of the Teek species , helped the two stranded Humans defeat the Marauders , retrieve the parts needed to repair Briqualon and Weet ' s spaceship , and kill Terak . With her ring destroyed , Charal was trapped in her raven form . In the resulting power vacuum , General Yavid tried to take the Marauder throne , but he was not able to match Terak ' s feat of keeping order over such a rabble , and the Marauders turned on one another , foiling Yavid ' s bid for power . Yet that civil war was not the end of the Marauders : Terak ' s son , the physically similar and equally brutal Zakul , eventually emerged victorious , reestablished order , and became king . In spite of the Marauders ' presence , Emperor Palpatine chose to build the shield generator for his second Death Star on the Forest Moon . A few months later , in 4 ABY , the Rebel Alliance destroyed the battle station and defeated the Empire above Endor . Following this decisive Alliance victory , the famed Star Tours travel agency sought to capitalize on the Moddell sector ' s sudden fame by offering to take passengers to the Forest Moon aboard their brand - new StarSpeeder 3000 transports . During one of such voyages on Endor , the spacecraft team was assaulted by two green - skinned Sanyassans . One of them threatened the Star Tours employees while the other kept a lookout , armed with a blaster pistol . However , when agents of the New Republic — the democratic government established by the Alliance — were sent to scout the Endorian forest , they found no trace of the Sanyassan Marauders . At some point after the rise of the New Republic , a white - bearded Sanyassan merchant sold blurrgs in the Coruscant Livestock Exchange and Exhibition , the largest livestock fair in the galaxy . He was seen bartering with a Quarren potential customer , trying to convince the customer not to buy another merchant ' s banthas , with a Twi ' lek and a Dathomiri witch beside him . The merchant wore fine clothes that were similar to those of the warlord Terak . His likeness was reproduced in the annotated field journal of Lyrre T ' enna , a famous zoologist . Behind the scenes . The Sanyassan species was created for the 1985 made - for - TV film " " . They were designed by the American director and artist Joe Johnston , based on an idea by Jim and Ken Wheat . Johnston first envisioned the brutish Marauders as three - fingered and completely hairless , but the design was changed later in pre - production , and the costumes used in the actual movie had four - fingered hands and manes of greasy hair . However , many of the early Sanyassans concept sketches were reused in the Endor chapter of " The Illustrated Star Wars Universe " in 1995 , thus bringing the bald and tridactyl Sanyassans back into canon . The Sanyassan Marauders of Endor also appeared in the now defunct " Star Wars " - themed " Star Wars Galaxies " . Their in - game appearance was designed by character artist Jason Temujin Minor . The Sayormi from the Dead Forest of Kashyyyk , another race that appeared in " Star Wars Galaxies " , closely resemble Sanyassans — not only do the Sayormi share the same character models as the Sanyassans , but they also have the same type of martial culture . Nevertheless their exact relationship has not yet been explored . " Galaxies " developers originally considered adding a Marauder " Heroic Encounter " to the game , which would have involved King Terak . A painting of Terak would have been added as a redeemable decorative item for completing the encounter . However , that part of the game was never implemented , although the painting could still be found in the game files . In the early years of the Expanded Universe , the species was only known as the " Marauders . " The name " Sanyassan " was first coined in " Endor and the Moddell Sector " , an article published in " Star Wars Gamer 9 " on March 1 , 2002 . From that moment on , the use of the term " Marauders " has been restricted to the group of Sanyassan pirates who crash landed on Endor . " The Essential Guide to Alien Species " , which was published one year before the first occurrences of the name " Sanyassan , " still listed the species ' true name as unknown , even in scientific circles . The 1993 book " Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas " contained the wanted poster of a criminal known as the " Marauder of Endor , " described as a " known associate of Terak . " The Marauder of Endor greatly resembles a card - playing black - mustachioed Sanyassan who appeared in " Ewoks : The Battle for Endor " . The poster featured many jocular statements , including a mention of . The wanted Marauder was said to have " mushrooms lining eyebrows , " " shaved dimples on both elbows " and a " hologram of his third mother on the right forelock . " The concept of " third mother " would imply Sanyassans had a different than Humans . However , Leland Chee , arbiter of the Holocron continuity database at Lucasfilm , indicated that information from this book is considered non - canonical unless reused in later publications . " The Illustrated Star Wars Universe " and the " Ultimate Alien Anthology " are in conflict on how old Sanyassans could get . While the former source stated that the Marauders were already adults when they crashed on Endor one hundred years before the Galactic Civil War — making them supercentenarians — the latter gave an average lifespan of only seventy years . Throughout the Expanded Universe , minor inconsistencies appeared regarding the Sanyassans ' number of digits and shape of the ears . While sources usually portray Sanyassans with four fingers on each hand — following " Ewoks : The Battle for Endor " — " Plug - Eye " Maygo was shown to have five - fingered hands in Race for the Tessent , an article in " Star Wars Gamer 9 " . In the reference book " The Essential Guide to Alien Species " , a Sanyassan was depicted as having elf - like ears , akin to those of the Sephi species from Thustra , while all the Marauders in the movie had Human - like auricles .