Gurlanin

Sabyaen Cyviri, an adult Gurlanin

> They could vanish completely to every sense when they chose—silent, invisible, without thermal profile, beyond the reach of sonar... and the Force.
>
> Etain Tur-Mukan

The Gurlanins were a polymorphic species native to the planet Qiilura.

## Biology and Appearance

At their normal state, they were canines with black fur all over their bodies. They had extremely sharp teeth that ran along the length of their snout, with four fangs protruding over their lower lip, each ending in a double point. This gave them a slight, almost comical lisp. All members of the Gurlanin race had orange eyes that were quite disconcerting to other races.

Gurlanins were generally considered to be marsupials, and the females had a pouch on their belly in which they carried their young. Their ears were located in their snouts, so that they could use a loud snuffling as echolocation. Their voices were very smooth, and had been remarked upon as being hypnotically soothing, almost like liquid. In addition, Gurlanins were strongly telepathic to other members of their race, and could communicate without speech among themselves, although they could not read the minds of beings not of their race. This ability was a natural manifestation of the Force among their kind. As a whole the species were long lived; the average lifespan for a Gurlanin was 700 years.

The average Gurlanin had the ability to assume almost any form to a maximal Size of a full grown Human, and this made them excellent spies and infiltrators.

## History

Although the Gurlanins had no love for the Galactic Republic, they agreed to assist it during the height of the Clone Wars after the Separatists established a base of control on Qiilura. Throughout their history, the Gurlanins had been feared or abused by the settlers of Qiilura, and they viewed the Separatists as the worst of the lot. Their assistance to the Republic's forces was given with the singular goal of removing the Separatists and freeing the Gurlanins.

After the removal of the Separatists, the Gurlanins then demanded the removal of the Republic settlers (who had helped dislodge the Separatists as well). If the Republic refused to remove the settlers, the Gurlanins threatened to use their natural abilities to sabotage the Republic's war effort. In response, Etain Tur-Mukan led a detachment of clones under Commander Levet to Qiilura to remove the settlers by force if necessary. Complications arose when the settlers — earlier trained and armed by Etain — felt betrayed by the Republic. When two thousand settlers refused to leave after continued deadlines set by Etain, the Gurlanins supplied information to the Separatists which resulted in the loss of a troop transport with over 10,000 men on board. Etain then ordered Levet to remove the settlers by force, an operation that would take several weeks.

### Occupation by the Republic

After the success of the mission to Qiilura, a deal was struck between the Republic and the Gurlanins to remove the Human colony. The terms of the agreement specified that the Gurlanins, with their ridiculously effective espionage skills, would act as spies for the Republic, and the entire Human colony would immediately be evicted from the planet by Republic forces. For the members of the dwindling population of Gurlanins, this meant that the merlie herds would once again reach their previous numbers in the wild, restoring balance to the environment. Failing to keep their end of the bargain, a Republic garrison was established and led by General Arligan Zey and Commander Etain Tur-Murkan. Their objective was to train the Human colonists in guerrilla warfare in case of another Separatist attack. However, because the Separatists had no other interests in the system, all that the training and equipping accomplished was the further encroachment of Gurlanin territory by Human colonists.

Furious, the Gurlanins decided that the only way to get the Republic to listen was to grab it by the ears. An entire Republic troopship was destroyed due to information leaked to the Separatists by Gurlanin agents. This caused the Senate to immediately understand the tremendous threat the Gurlanins could be, and a decision was quickly made to remove the Human colonists on Qiilura.

The Senate Committee on Refugees was informed by Republic Intelligence that at least two, and possibly a much larger number of other Gurlanins, had infiltrated Coruscant, where they were in place and standing by to inflict significant damage to the Republic in retaliation for the continued occupation of Qiilura. Tur-Murkan, now a General, led a contingent of clone troopers to expedite the evacuation of the Human colonists. The colonists resisted leaving their homes, and openly engaged Republic forces with the militias trained by Zey and Tur-Murkan. The evacuation quickly became an eviction, and when clone casualties grew out of hand, Tur-Murkan regretfully gave the order to use lethal force, if necessary, to remove the remaining colonist hold-outs.

When all the settlers had been removed, all Gurlanin spies also returned to Qiilura.