Nokk

Nokk was a Trandoshan female who worked as a hunter with her husband Winloss. In her clan, Nokk was talented at hunting, and her elders saw promise in her abilities. However, during her coming-of-age ceremony, the hunt leader Skikkesk forced her to kill and skin a baby Wookiee, which Nokk refused to do, leading to a purge of her brood line. Nokk escaped with her life and swore to a life of non-violence thereafter, hunting to capture rather than to kill. While working as a trapper, Nokk fell in love with the human Winloss, and the two chose to work together as hunters.
She and Winloss were hired by the archaeologist Doctor Chelli Aphra as part of Aphra's attempt to escape being eaten alive by the Shadowfang Beast on X3-299-11. Nokk and her husband survived the ordeal, but were abandoned by Aphra before they could be paid. The two later received a new job from a disguised Doctor Cornelius Evazan, who tasked them with the destruction of the assassin droid 0-0-0. While initially refusing, Nokk discovered Aphra was with the droid, and decided to take the offer. She and Winloss found their targets on Milvayne, being hunted by the undead vigilante Tam Posla.
While Aphra and Triple-Zero managed to briefly escape, the hunters eventually led the fugitives into a trap, capturing them. Before Nokk and Winloss could take their captives away, the Coalition for Progress, in response to the disorder caused by the chase, fired on the city, forcing the hunters to escape from their crashing starship. Nokk and Winloss tracked Aphra down, but decided to let her live, feeling that she was causing enough harm to herself. With the help of the cyberneticist Professor Prexo, the hunters traced the feed that Evazan was broadcasting through Triple-Zero's photoreceptors, apprehending him instead.
Nokk and Winloss later carried out a favor for Aphra in exchange for learning where Skikkesk resided. The hunters worked with the bounty hunter Krrsantan to trick Shrem, a bartender at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina on Tatooine who had once worked with and betrayed Aphra, into both revealing Skikkesk's location and angering the local crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Their plan was successful, allowing Nokk to exact revenge on Skikkesk for ruining her life.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Nokk was a promising young Trandoshan in her clan, and was eventually put through her coming-of-age ceremony, organized by the hunt leader Skikkesk. During her hunt, Nokk excelled in trapping and broke records in the chase section. Her abilities excited her elders, who saw Nokk as a new hope for their clan. However, Skikkesk was jealous of Nokk, and for her final task, ordered her to kill and skin a baby Wookiee. Nokk, as Skikkesk expected, was unable to do as she was asked, failing the test. As punishment, Nokk was exiled, and Skikkesk oversaw the purge of her brood line. Nokk managed to escape, but many of her sisters were killed.Doctor Aphra Annual 3
For several years, Nokk found work as a trapper, managing to earn some credits. Due to her traumatic past, Nokk refused to kill any innocent creature, but her ideals prevented her from achieving much success. She eventually encountered the human Winloss, and the two fell in love and eventually married. During the reign of the Galactic Empire, Nokk and Winloss took jobs as monster hunters in the galactic underworld,Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy hoping to be noticed by King Prana and overtake Squoxx to become the king's best hunters. At some point, Winloss paid a promiscuous tutorial droid on Tatooine to learn pickpocketing routines, which irritated Nokk.
===Hired by Aphra===
====Temple infiltration====
When the archaeologist Doctor Chelli Aphra was swallowed alive by the Shadowfang Beast while attempting to steal an idol from a temple on the world of X3-299-11 around 1 ABY, she hired several hunters to subdue the creature and allow her to escape. When all the previous hunters were either killed or fatally wounded in attempt to reach the beast, Aphra contacted Winloss, giving them the job. Nokk and Winloss traveled to the distant world, where they reached the opening to the temple. Aphra contacted the two hunters via hologram, lying and telling them that she represented an individual who wished to have the beast subdued and left alive. Despite feeling that Aphra was untrustworthy, Nokk accepted the job, and she and Winloss entered the temple.
As Nokk and Winloss walked, they argued about what weapons they should use, becoming distracted. Over the holoprojector, Aphra warned the hunters, telling them to duck. Nokk leapt at Winloss, knocking them both out of the way of a volley of spears that were shot at them. Winloss noticed the corpse of the hunter Ro Thran, who had been killed by the spears some time earlier. Nokk grabbed the holoprojector, demanding that Aphra explain how she was able to predict the trap. After the hunters dodged several more spears, Aphra told them about the temple, including the idol she had secretly attempted to steal, along with the many traps and the beast that guarded it. Nokk was distracted by one such trap, the Vortex of Fiery Dematerialization, which Aphra warned her to look away from. Winloss forced Nokk away from the object, and Aphra continued to lead them through the temple.
====Facing the beast====
Winloss noticed what he thought was the idol, and wanted to take it, but Nokk refused, telling him that they had to complete the job and uphold their reputation. Winloss protested, but Nokk convinced him to continue doing what they thought was right. Aphra, who was unable to hear or see them as the holoprojector had been closed, informed them that the idol nearby was fake, and that it would activate a tractor beam device. Looking up, the hunters saw Trapper Pehk stuck on the device, who warned them not to trust Aphra. Aphra told them that they were standing in one of the Shadowfang Beast's feeding sites, and Nokk turned around to see the beast heading towards them. She demanded her Vr'gedian tranquilizer harpoon from Winloss, who tried to convince her to use alternative weapons before also noticing the creature.
Nokk took the harpoon from Winloss and leapt at the beast, but the weapon shattered upon making impact with its scales, and the creature threw Nokk aside. Winloss shot at the creature with his blaster, but the blast only charged up its resonance-absorptive shield, causing it to jump up and swallow Trapper Pehk, retreating into a cave. Winloss ran over to Nokk, checking whether she had been hurt. After learning that she was okay, Winloss turned to the hologram of Aphra, demanding to know the truth. Aphra was reluctant to speak, but Nokk interrupted, having realized that they were not the first hunters Aphra had hired. Aphra explained that as all their competition was dead, they could be the top hunters in their area, a line of thinking that Nokk did not like.
As they overcame more traps, Winloss asked what had happened when he had shot at the creature, but Aphra disregarded it, warning them of more spears. Nokk, tired of Aphra's avoidance to tell the truth, caught a spear that flew at her, demanding that she answered Winloss' question. Aphra explained the nature of the Shadowfang Beast, accidentally letting slip that she had personally observed the creature, but warned them of several thermodrones before Nokk could question it. Winloss destroyed the thermodrones, repeating Nokk's question, but Aphra lied, telling them to continue their journey. The hunters came across the lair of the beast, noticing that the real idol had been taken. Aphra told them that several of the other hunters had been attacked at that point, and as she spoke, the creature emerged. Aphra suggested that they run, but Nokk refused, pushing Winloss out of the beast's way and into a cavern where they discovered Squoxx, King Prana's current best hunter and their main rival.
====The truth revealed====
Squoxx pleaded with the two hunters, asking that they kill the beast and take him back to King Prana, claiming that they would be rewarded for doing so. Nokk noticed that Squoxx's lekku had been bitten off, and that he would die within an hour. Quietly speaking with Winloss, she suggested that they use Squoxx as bait for the creature, and they tied him up, throwing him back into the beast's lair. However, the Shadowfang Beast did not take the bait, leading Nokk to guess that it was blind and only used its hearing to navigate the caverns. As a distraction, she asked Winloss to loudly run in the opposite direction, distracting the beast so that she could sneak up behind it and subdue it with an electro cudgel.
Noticing that the creature's scales had broken from when she hit it with her harpoon, Nokk leapt onto the Shadowfang Beast, hitting the exposed skin with the cudgel. The strike successfully knocked the beast out, and the hunters asked Aphra about their payment. Attempting to manipulate them into killing the beast while it was subdued, Aphra refused to pay them anything. Angered, Nokk threatened to kill the creature with a crossbow. Aphra taunted Nokk and her ethics, claiming that she could not. Nokk handed the crossbow to Winloss, asking him to do it, but he was also unable to bring himself to do it, throwing the crossbow behind him. Squoxx, who was still lying on the ground, caught it and shot the Shadowfang Beast, killing it at the same time as he died.
With the beast dead, Aphra shot her way out of the creature, revealing that she had been inside it the entire time. As she took off the null suit that had let her survive after being eaten, Nokk realized that she had hired hunters to subdue the beast because blasters would cause the its shield discharge to kill her. Aphra escaped the cave with a jetpack, leaving Nokk and Winloss behind. Once Aphra was gone, Nokk suggested dedicating her life to taking revenge, but Winloss revealed that he had stolen the idol from her with the pickpocketing skills he had learned. Nokk attempted to admit her love for Winloss, but was speechless. Winloss reassured her that he knew what she was trying to say, and the two hunters walked out of the cave.
===A chance for revenge===
====An unexpected reminder====
Around 1 ABY, Nokk and Winloss received another job offer, supposedly from Princess Leia Organa of the Rebel Alliance, unaware that "Organa" was actually the mad scientist Doctor Cornelius Evazan disguising himself with a pluripleq. As they docked their ship with Evazan's, Nokk was suspicious of the legitimacy of their client. Winloss, however, was confident, so the two hunters met with "Organa". In disguise, Evazan requested that they hunt down and destroy the Triple-Zero protocol personality matrix within the assassin droid 0-0-0, claiming it was an enemy of the Rebellion. As a hunter of creatures rather than a killer, Nokk refused, still suspecting that "Organa" was not who she claimed to be.
As she went to leave, she noticed the viewscreen Evazan had been watching, showing a live feed from 0-0-0's photoreceptors. Visible on the screen was Doctor Aphra, who Evazan had linked to the droid via proximity bombs, forcing them to stay togetherDoctor Aphra (2016) 26 after escaping the Imperial wreckage-prison Accresker Jail.Doctor Aphra (2016) 25 Both Nokk and Winloss recognized the archaeologist who had almost gotten them killed, and Nokk was angered at the sight of her. "Organa" gave them a new deal, telling them to only incapacitate 0-0-0 but to kill Aphra. Winloss and Nokk accepted instantly, leaving the ship to begin their hunt. As they left, Evazan removed his disguise, expressing his lack of faith for the hunters' success.
====Hunting on Milvayne====
The hunters made their way to the planet Milvayne, where Aphra and Triple-Zero were being confronted by the bounty hunter Tam Posla, whose corpse had been reanimated by Force-powered gundravian hookspores that were also present on Accresker Jail. Winloss suggested using thermal flechettes, but Nokk instead used her Vr'gedian tranquilizer harpoon to impale Posla. While Winloss expressed his disappointment at not using his choice of weapon, and Nokk disagreed, Aphra recognized the hunters with dismay.
As Nokk and Winloss continued to argue, Aphra remembered their policy of non-lethality, claiming she and Triple-Zero would be safe. However, when the hunters confronted Aphra, Winloss falsely claimed that she had been pointing a blaster at them, and that shooting her would thus be self-defense. Nokk asked Winloss for their ion-net launcher, to disable Triple-Zero, but Winloss believed he should be the one to use it. They turned around to notice Triple-Zero's fellow assassin droid BT-1, who had been reprogrammed by Posla, about to fire at them. Winloss threw himself and Nokk out of the way, and the two used the ion-net to disable the BT-1 assassin droid, diving aside before he could fire again.
Aphra and Triple-Zero escaped while the hunters were distracted, and Evazan confirmed his doubts about their abilities. Wanting the chase to become more exciting, Evazan broadcast a message across Milvayne City, claiming to provide a bounty on either the capture or death of Aphra and Triple-Zero. Nokk and Winloss left in search of their targets once again, taking the deactivated BT-1 with them. Posla, once again revived by the hookspores, pulled Nokk's tranquilizer harpoon out from himself, throwing it aside and resuming his hunt. Posla successfully captured Aphra and Triple-Zero with the help of Vulaada Klam, but Aphra managed to turn the Milvayne Authority officers against him and escaped to a fuelstop, where she repaired Triple-Zero,Doctor Aphra (2016) 29 who had been shot in two by Klam.
====Chase through the city====
At the same time, Nokk and Winloss devised a plan to catch her and end the chase. When Triple-Zero was repaired, Nokk threw another tranquilizer harpoon at the two fugitives, narrowly missing Aphra, who Triple-Zero grabbed before leaping aside and catching onto a passing freighter. Nokk pursued them through the air with a jetpack, firing stun shots in their direction. She threw a harpoon between Triple-Zero and Aphra, separating them. As she leapt at them with another harpoon, she was abruptly thrown to the side, where she seemingly disappeared. Triple-Zero, noticing Beetee on a nearby starship, leapt across to see him, followed by Aphra. However, Beetee was still disabled due to the hunters' ion-net, and had been placed on the craft as a trap. Winloss, who was driving his and Nokk's starship, activated a cage that surrounded the fugitives, trapping them.
Nokk returned to the speeder, acknowledging the success of their plan, and the hunters went on their way to get paid. Unknown to her and Winloss, Aphra and Triple-Zero's capture angered the viewers of the feed from the droid's eyes, who had come to support them in the chase. Captain Okma of the Galactic Empire's Coalition for Progress, from his flagship Enduring Pride, was ordered to pacify the aggression, firing down into the city. Winloss noticed the rail gun fire, and Nokk tried to move the ship to avoid it, but the resulting explosion took out one of the engines. As the ship descended, Nokk and Winloss ejected, leaving their captives trapped in the falling vehicle.
====Ending the hunt====
Both Aphra and Triple-Zero survived the crash, but were captured by Captain Okma. Aphra used a seismic pulse she had secretly built into Triple-Zero to incapacitate both the Imperials and herself. Triple-Zero, who had remained active, acquired codes from torturing Okma, using them to show Aphra a hologram that confirmed the survival, and defection, of former Imperial Captain-Inspector Magna Tolvan, who Aphra had not heard about after previously using her to escape the Sith Lord Darth Vader on Accresker Jail. In return, Aphra allowed Triple-Zero to access the memories of his former self. While the assassin droid was offline, the hunters caught up to Aphra, and Nokk hit the archaeologist over the head with a tranquilizer harpoon. Both Winloss and Nokk aimed blasters at Aphra, threatening to kill her.
However, having watched the feed from Triple-Zero's eyes and witnessing Aphra realize that the droid was the closest thing she had to a companion, the hunters disdainfully pitied her. Nokk, who felt that Aphra's situation was pathetic, reminded Aphra of how she had used them, shaming her for her selfishness. Believing that Aphra was causing more damage to herself than revenge could ever do, the hunters turned and walked away. As they left, Aphra insulted them for being used, correctly guessing that they had fallen for Evazan's disguise. Nokk stopped when Aphra claimed that they would not be able to track Evazan down if they wanted to, but she was dragged away by Winloss, who told his wife to ignore her.
====One step ahead====
Challenging Aphra's remark and believing that Evazan would not have paid them, Nokk and Winloss set out to find him. To do so, they located the same cyberneticist that Aphra and Triple-Zero were seeking, Professor Prexo, who traced the broadcast signal to where Evazan was hiding.
The hunters apprehended the scientist and his associate Ponda Baba, also deactivating the bombs that had been implanted into Aphra and Triple-Zero. As the hunters took Evazan and Baba away, intent on handing them over to authorities, Nokk requested that Prexo disable the broadcast feed, wishing to never see Aphra again.
===Working with Aphra===
====A new arrangement====
However, Nokk's wish would not last long. At some point after the events on Milvayne, Nokk and Winloss were contacted by Aphra, who had since managed to earn the favor of the Emperor and acquire a position working aboard the Executor, flagship of the Sith Lord Darth Vader.Doctor Aphra (2016) 37 In her message to the hunters, Aphra claimed to wish to pay them back for sparing her life, and that she had learned the planet where Skikkesk resided. Aphra, who wished to get revenge on Shrem, an associate who had previously worked with Skikkesk to betray her in a job, devised a plan for the hunters to work with the bounty hunter Krrsantan and trick Shrem into betraying Skikkesk.
In Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina on the planet Tatooine, where Shrem worked as a bartender, Nokk and Winloss allowed him to overhear Aphra's message regarding Skikkesk. As part of Aphra's plan, Winloss left a spitscuttle, a small creature that infested Imperial fleets, in the care of Shrem, claiming he had caught it on Tatooine and that Nokk wanted it to be kept alive. Once the hunters left the cantina, with Nokk intending to terrorize local stormtroopers, Krrsantan entered and claimed that Winloss's creature was a rare and expensive variant of the Tatooine scurrier.
====Delivering a message====
Some time later, the hunters returned, and Nokk demanded that Winloss retrieve the "scurrier." Shrem, who had made a deal to sell the creature to Krrsantan, pretended that he wanted to keep it as a pet. In return for the creature, Shrem disclosed Skikkesk's location, betraying his old associate for the credits he believed he would be earning.
Nokk and Winloss left the cantina to hunt down Skikkesk elsewhere on Tatooine. The hunters attacked the Trandoshan and his crew, allowing Black Krrsantan to capture Skikkesk himself. Shrem decided to instead sell the creature to Jabba the Hutt, believing that the crime lord would pay a large number of credits for it. However, both the hunters and Krrsantan met Shrem at Jabba's Palace, where Nokk delivered the bartender a message from Aphra. Despite finding an incapacitated Skikkesk inside the palace, Shrem attempted to sell the creature to Jabba, who learned that it was worthless. As Shrem and Skikkesk were dropped into the Hutt's rancor pit, Nokk and Winloss left the palace, with Winloss suggesting that they continue to work with Krrsantan.
==Personality and traits==
Nokk was a female Trandoshan with green skin and yellow eyes. While her species were known for their love of violent hunting, Nokk had different ideals, refusing to kill even when her place in her clan depended on it. Nokk's past led her to vow to never kill any innocent creature during her work as a hunter. She was sickened at the sight of the dead Shadowfang Beast, even though it had nearly killed both her and Winloss. Despite this, she had no issue with taking the life of any sentient being who had chosen to risk it, doing so when using a dying Squoxx as bait.
After being betrayed by Doctor Aphra, Nokk briefly considered taking revenge, and later eagerly accepted a job offer from Evazan, as it involved killing her. However, she ultimately abandoned the job, claiming that Aphra had already done enough damage to herself. Once Nokk realized that Evazan would have betrayed them by not paying a reward, she decided to track him down for revenge before Aphra could. She later chose to assist Aphra with a favor, partially because she had the chance to hunt down her former tormentor.
Nokk wanted to appear professional whilst hunting, but was irritated when Winloss introduced them as such. As a Trandoshan, she was often hostile towards humans, and even found it difficult to show kindness to her husband, Winloss. While carrying out the hunting mission assigned by Aphra, Nokk managed to work out several of the real details of Aphra's plan, leading Aphra to call her a "smart reptile," and also saw through Evazan's disguise when he hired them to hunt Aphra.
==Skills and abilities==
Nokk's skills as a young Trandoshan excited her clan, and she excelled in her coming-of-age ceremonial hunt. She used her skills to take jobs as a trapper and hunter, though she did not kill innocent creatures. Winloss claimed that she was "the best," a reputation that Nokk wanted to uphold. She was able to incapacitate the deadly Shadowfang Beast, a feat that none of the other hunters hired by Aphra managed to do. Nokk was proficient with the use of Vr'gedian tranquilizer harpoons, utilizing them multiple times with accuracy. She intentionally missed her throws when chasing Aphra and Triple-Zero on Milvayne, intending to lead them into a trap. Nokk also had fast reflexes, able to quickly dodge or catch spears that were shot at her in the temple on X3-299-11.
==Equipment==
Nokk utilized several non-lethal weapons, such as tranquilizer harpoons and electro cudgels, weapons that would leave no lasting damage on creatures that she used them on. While she had her own blaster, which she kept holstered on her hip, she was given a NN-14 blaster pistol by Winloss when confronting Aphra, but never actually used it. She once again used a NN-14 blaster pistol when capturing Cornelius Evazan. Nokk utilized a dagger while attacking Skikkesk and his crew.
On Milvayne, she used a jetpack along with her blaster, but only fired stun shots. She and Winloss also utilized a starship, which was later destroyed when the Coalition for Progress fired on Milvayne City. She wore purple armor and a torn yellow cloak.
==Behind the scenes==
Nokk first appeared in the second Annual of the 2016 Star Wars: Doctor Aphra comic series, written by Si Spurrier, illustrated by Caspar Wijngaard, and published by Marvel Comics on September 5, 2018. On creating the characters of Nokk and Winloss, Spurrier commented that he liked the idea of a capable female lizard giving orders to a bumbling human. In a blog published after the end of the series, Spurrier included the creation of the interspecies couple that was Winloss and Nokk as one of the stories he was glad to have been able to tell in Star Wars. Spurrier stated that he wished to be able to write further stories about Winloss and Nokk, whose traits and relationship make for ridiculous and heartwarming characters.
==Appearances==
*Doctor Aphra Annual 2 
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 27
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 28
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 29
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 30
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 31
*Doctor Aphra Annual 3
==Sources==
*Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition
*
*Star Wars: Timelines
*Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy
==Notes and references==
Category:Females
Category:Individuals with she/her pronouns
Category:Monster hunters
Category:Trandoshans