Jawa

**Jawas** were typically short rodent-like natives of Tatooine. They were passionate scavengers, seeking out technology for sale or trade in the deep deserts in their huge sandcrawler transports. A band of Jawas were responsible for locating C-3PO and R2-D2 and selling them to Luke Skywalker's uncle, Owen Lars. They had a reputation for swindling, as they had a penchant for selling old equipment to moisture farmers. However, they were extremely passive beings, and hardly put up any resistance to colonists of their planet unlike other natives, like the Sand People, instead seeing foreigners as an excellent business opportunity. Jawas who migrated from Tatooine were referred to as **Offworld Jawas**.

## Characteristics

Jawas were easily identifiable by their traditional brown hooded robes, though it was not unheard of for them to wear other colors. Other notable features included their glowing yellow eyes, small stature and high pitched, quickly spoken language called Jawaese.

Through the study of corpses and skeletal remains, Baobabxenobiologists discovered that Jawas appeared to be gaunt, rodent-like creatures, with shrunken faces and yellow eyes. Conflicting research suggests that Jawas and Tusken Raiders, two native species of Tatooine, originally have evolved from the same extinct species, the Kumumgah, as both have common genetic markers, while other research suggests Jawas originated from humans.

At all times, Jawa faces remained obscured by a shroud of cloth to retain moisture, hide their identity and dissipate their body heat. Polished orange gemstones were embedded within the fabric to protect the Jawas’ sensitive vision from the bright sunlight. The only physical parts that were exposed were their hands, which had tufts of fur on the palms. Jawas were renowned for their incredibly potent odor. Repulsive to most species, this odor contained incredible amounts of information such as other Jawas' identity, health, clan lineage, last meal, maturity, arousal and even their mood. Their odor was compounded by a mysterious solution Jawas dipped their clothes in to retain moisture, and their view of bathing as being a waste of precious water, which attracted swarms of insects to gather in the recesses of their hoods. Jawas evolved several important survival traits, such as exceptional night vision and a strong immune system. A Jawa’s normal body temperature was 46°C (116°F) which resulted in a high metabolism and an efficient digestive system that drew all the needed nutrients from the Jawa staple diet of hubba gourd.

## History

In 4 ABY, a band of Jawas that had yellow eyes found Jodo Kast lying on the desert ground, weakened and unconsious after a fight against an unknown force. The Jawas stripped his suit of Mandalorian armor, taking it and returning to their sandcrawler. Later, shortly after the destruction of the second Death Star, the armor was in the possession of a group of Jawas that had red eyes. They stumbled upon Cobb Vanth, a man who had recently fled the town of Mos Pelgo. Providing Vanth with water, the Jawas quickly discovered the man's only possession: a camtono filled with silicax oxalate crystals. The Jawas desperately wanted the crystals, offering Vanth weapons, an astromech droid, and other items before Vanth pointed to the Mandalorian armor. Just then, the gangster Adwin Charu traveled to the Jawas' sandcrawler to barter for weapons. However, when he discovered the armor, he was keen on acquiring it. Vanth refused to let Charu take it, shooting the man before taking the armor and returning to town. Sometime after the Battle of Endor, a group of 480 Jawas was transported to Endor as part of a privately funded expedition to salvage valuable hardware from wreckage left there after the battle. They reportedly mutinied, forming a roving bandit gang that preyed upon any visitors to the moon.

Sometime later, in 5 ABY, a group of Jawas with red eyes stole the Crystal Skull from Indiana Jones and Boba Fett on Stobar, stealing the *Bravo Adventurer* and making their way to Lotho Minor. It was not known what happened to these Jawas as they were nowhere to be seen when Fett and Jones tracked them to the planet and found both the skull and U-wing later.

In 9 ABY, a band of Jawas that had yellow eyes found Boba Fett lying on the desert ground, weakened after he escaped from a sarlacc. The Jawas stripped his suit of corroded Mandalorian armor. Fett awakened, but one of the Jawas knocked him unconscious with a blaster. The Jawas took his armor and returned to their sandcrawler, selling it to Cobb Vanth, who had lost his original armor a few years earlier but had no memory of it.