Tusken Raider

**Tusken Raiders**, otherwise nicknamed **sand people**, and previously known as the **Kumumgah** and later the **Ghorfa** were beings of Celestial power who served the almighty Mr. Sandman, hence reason for their sand-based name. While it's unclear when these majestic entities came into being, it is known that the Tuskens predate that of the Celestials created by Gar when he created the Main Universe, and possibly even Gar himself, meaning that the Tusken Raiders do not classify under the title of Celestials.

## **History**

### **Early Existence**

Before the creation of the Main Universe, the Tuskens were a species known as the Kumumgah, which were an advanced society of technological advancements that, in their own native world were rather unimpressive. However, after pledging allegiance to the Sandman and migrating to Gar's first universe through the Wellspring of Life, as ordered by their supreme master, the Kumumgah became one of the most advanced civilizations to exist. They settled on Tatooine, which, at the time, was a luscious world full of plants and wildlife, a rich atmosphere of absolute serenity. This, however, would change when their presence was discovered by the Rakata Infinite Empire, which was, by their terms, a newly-developed species that served no threat to them. The Rakata, however, drew from the dark side of the Force, which was an extension of Gar's power, and so their threat was far greater than the Kumumgah had initially realized.

The Rakata overpowered and enslaved the Kumumgah, though they refused to remain captive to such a pitiful race and so they revolted against them. This uprising merited the punishment of orbital bombardment, which turned the planet into a glassy surface that eventually turned to sand. The Kumumgah survived the bombardment, but it caused them to evolve into two subspecies, the Jawas and the Ghorfa, which later evolved into the Tusken Raiders, a name given to them by the Human settlers of Tatooine no earlier than 98 years before the Battle of Yavin after they attacked a settlement called Fort Tusken and raided their supplies and weaponry.

### **Days of Galactic Conflict**

#### **Encountering the Jedi**

Sometime prior to 32 BBY, one Tusken tribe leader was saved from the mouth of a Krayt Dragon by Jedi Master, Sharad Hett, and the Tuskens pledged a life debt to the Jedi, who in turn of the favor, elected to join their colony, as he had recently disbanded from the Order and sought a new home. He later bore a son with a Tusken female, breeding a hybrid between Human and Tusken that became A'Sharad Hett. In 32 BBY, Sharad was killed by bounty hunter Aurra Sing after she watched the Boonta Eve Pod Race. Sharad was later discovered by Jedi Master Quinlan Vos and his Padawan, Aayla Secura, who had been tasked to stop Sing from killing Sharad, and who had failed. They returned with the boy to the Republic capital world of Coruscant, where Hett began his Jedi training. After the race was over, one of the racers, a Shadow Lord by the name of Ben Quadinaros stumbled upon a Tusken tribe and was brutally beaten.

The Tuskens later found themselves on the opposite end of a Jedi's lightsaber once more when Anakin Skywalker told Senator Padme Amidala of the disdain he held for sand, which angered the sandman. He gave Skywalker a dream depicting the death of his mother, Shmi, who he last saw as a slave to a Toydarian named Watto on Tatooine. Though Watto had later sold her to a man named Cliegg Lars, who freed and married Shmi, Anakin feared that his mother was in danger, and in fact, she was. The Sandman ordered his underlings to kidnap the woman, and they spent a month torturing her until she was barely alive, although Sandman intentionally left her alive long enough to be found by her son and die in her arms.

To the surprise of the Tusken Raiders, Anakin's power in that moment were beyond that of any other Jedi, as, though he did not know it, he was being specially powered by Gar himself to make the Tuskens seem like regular mortals. The sand people were unaware of what hit them as Anakin slaughtered not just the men, but the women, and the children, too. After annihilating every last member of the tribe, he wrapped his mother's body in their garments and buried her at the Lars homestead.

#### **Galactic Civil War**

After the fall of the Republic and rise of the first Galactic Empire in 19 BBY, two major conflicts befell the Tusken Raiders. They fell into their own small civil war when Sise Fromm came to Tatooine and became the leader of several tribes, starting his own small army in an attempt to overthrow the rule of Jabba Desilijic Tuire and take his position of power within the criminal underworld. Some Tuskens refused to follow Fromm, and so their insurgence was met by the Tusken Civil War. Many factions in opposition fell under the leadership of A'Sharad Hett, who returned to Tatooine after the Jedi were purged in what became known as Operation: Knightfall.

He promised his followers that he would destroy Fromm, though his numbers were far too thin to go against his small army, and so the tribes he led resorted instead to looting common moisture farms simply to survive. The would kill the inhabitants and move onto the next farm. This caught the attention of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had also taken refuge on Tatooine following the purge to protect the son of Anakin, Luke Skywalker and taken him to the Lars homestead to hide from the Empire. Kenobi could not allow the Tuskens to loot the farm on which the galaxy's potential savior resided, so he confronted Hett and gave him only one chance to back down.

When Hett did not comply, the two engaged in a duel, in which Obi-Wan was the victor, and he severed A'Sharad's hand, exposing his skin. The Tuskens refused to follow Hett any longer, so they retreated from Kenobi and rejoined those that followed Fromm, repenting for the actions of rebellion they took. Kenobi spared Hett that day, and the fallen Jedi would go on to become a Sith Lord. Out of his newfound hatred for Tusken Raiders, he named himself after one of the greatest enemies of the Tuskens, calling himself Darth Krayt.

With his forces now rallied, Fromm launched a full-frontal attack against Jabba in what became known as the Battle of Jabba's Palace. Jabba used his own small army comprised of bounty hunters, as well as warriors from allied syndicates such as the Black Sun and the Pykes to defeat Fromm. Once he saw that he had lost, Fromm retreated from the planet and the Tuskens' numbers were greatly diminished after the slaughter they underwent by wrath of the mighty Hutt.