Mustafarian

**Mustafarians** were an insectoid sentient species native to the volcanic Outer Rim mining world of Mustafar of which there existed two distinct subspecies: the tall, thin Northern Mustafarians, and the short, stocky Southern Mustafarians.

## Characteristics

An insectoid sentient species, the two subspecies of Mustafarians had different physiologies as well as different roles in their society. The northern Mustafarians were significantly taller than their southern cousins and physically weaker. Because of their frail physiology, those who served as sentries commonly had their limbs enhanced with cybernetic prosthetics.

The southern Mustafarians were stronger and shorter in stature than their northern cousins. They handled the "heavy lifting" jobs of the their planet's lava mining, and could withstand higher temperatures than northerners. Since they spent more time near the lava, they wore breath masks and thick armor to compensate.

There were similarities between the two subspecies, though. Both were hard-shelled arthropods with long snouts and insectoid eyes. Their exoskeletons lay in plates over leathery skin, serving as protection from the heat they experienced on Mustafar. Unlike most species of the galaxy, they had very little water in their bodies. Some Mustafarian clan leaders were known to be able to manipulate lava using the Force.

## History

The Mustafarians evolved from extremophilic arthropods whose natural habitat was the slightly cooler hollows and caves inside Mustafar's dormant volcanoes.

When the Techno Union arrived on Mustafar about three hundred years before the Clone Wars, the Mustafarians signed a trade treaty with the off-worlders. Technology gained through trade allowed the Mustafarians to survive even the harshest conditions on their homeworld and increased their living conditions. In return, the Mustafarians helped build and manage operations on Mustafar to extract minerals for the Techno Union.

Although they evolved separate in underground caves on Mustafar, the Northern and Southern Mustafarians worked together to collect valuable minerals from their homeworld's lava flows. As a result of their trade agreement with the Techno Union, some aligned themselves with the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars. Several Mustafarians present with the Separatist Council on Mustafar at the end of the war were slaughtered by Darth Vader during his mission to eliminate the Separatist Council, which had gone into hiding on Mustafar at the Klegger Corp Mining Facility. The Mustafarians were happy to have gained control of the fortress and were left to manage their own affairs.

However, it was believed that the fortress was decimated by orbital bombardment by the Galactic Empire when the renegade Geonosian Separatist Gizor Dellso retreated there, refusing to surrender to the Empire.

Years later Vader returned to Mustafar aboard a Naboo Royal Starship. A Mustafarian chieftain Kkkt spotted the ship plummet towards the surface and later sent a scout party to check it out. Comprising of four Mustafarians—Bbbl, Rrrn, Sssp, and one other—the party were attacked by Vader, who killed Bbbl and the other Mustafarian. He then used a haunted Sith mask to possess Sssp and Rrrn retreated back to Kkkt to tell him about what he saw.

Shortly after, Vader and the Sith spirit possessing Sssp began building a structure to channel the dark side energies from a Sith cave. When the structure failed to channel it right, it became wrecked, and the two Sith started again. The attempts also affected the rest of Mustafar, causing lava storms to erupt on the clans. Kkkt came in contact with the rest of the clans and they planned to destroy this structure before it destroyed their homes. Kkkt led this newly formed army to attack the newly built fortress. They outnumbered the Imperial garrison ten to one, but Vader still slaughtered many of them. Kkkt and the other chiefs then used the Force to channel a lava flow and flood the battlefield. With the garrison wiped out, Vader retreated back to the fortress and Kkkt's remaining forces began trying to destroy it. Vader, however, channeled the Force through it and it obliterated the last of the Mustafarian army.

Kkkt was not the last Mustafarian to attack the fortress, as Criakan led his own army to destroy it. As they entered, they overran the defending Lava Troopers and found Vader's aide Vaneé. Criakan threatened him, but Vaneé pointed out Vader standing behind the Mustafarians. Subsequently, Vader proceeded to kill the invaders. Priestess Sssl of Clan Rrrt also led an attack on the fortress, leading an army of plague-infected Mustafarians to infect troopers around the complex and break into it. Vader faced them and was bitten by one of the infected troopers. However, the bite had only been on his cybernetic-arm and Vader used the Force to take control of the infected Mustafarians, making them destroy Sssl and themselves.

During the New Republic Era, Mustafarians operated at the Mensix Mining Facility, which replaced the Klegger Corp facility after its destruction. Sometime during 7 ABY, a Mustafarian was captured by Sith Eternal cultists under Chattar Lal and sacrificed at Lal's Sith temple to appease the Sith Lords, specifically the late Vader. Not long afterward, the bounty hunter Boba Fett captured Lal and brought him to the Mensix Mining Facility. Under Fett's orders, the Mustafarian workers there incased Lal in a carbonite slab.

## Appearances

* Agent of Doom (First appearance)
* Ochi of Bestoon
* Tales from Vader's Castle, Part I (Mentioned only)
* Tales from Vader's Castle, Part II (In flashback(s))