INFO: The Morseerians were sentient species distinguished by four arms and methane-based respiration. Most of a Morseerian's body was covered in semitransparent skin that showed the underlying internal organs. The exception was the elongated head, which featured large, black eyes, a small nose, and a thin, triangle-shaped mouth. When found on planets with an oxygen-rich atmosphere, Morseerians wore full environment suits and breath masks that provided the methane they needed to survive. They usually flew ships that supported methane environments and employed crew members who could survive in such conditions.
Little was known about their history or culture except that they were a reserved and secretive people who had several colonies—including the world Morseer, for which they were named. The Morseerians were clients of the Drackmarians of Quelii sector; after that species was defeated by the Galactic Empire, Morseer came under the dominion of the Empire. During the Galactic Civil War, Imperial investigations into the location of the species' homeworld drove many members of the species to secretly support the Alliance to Restore the Republic. A few Morseerians gained fame in the galaxy at large, including the fighter pilot-cum-smuggler Nabrun Leids.
RACE: Morseerian
HEIGHT: 1.5 to 1,7 Meters Tall
SKIN: Translucent; gray, white, green, purple, tan, brown
DISTINCTION: Four arms, elongated head
LANGUAGE: Morseerian
HOMEWORLD:The name and location of the Morseerian homeworld was a jealously guarded secret of the Morseerian species. Although spacers generally held that the planet was somewhere in the Outer Rim Territories, only the Morseerians knew its astronavigational coordinates, and members of the species chose death over revealing this information. The species attained hyperspace technology at some point and spread out beyond their homeworld to found colonies, such as Morseer, with which others most strongly associated them and from which they took their name. This helped them protect the location of their planet of origin because Morseerian colonists and spacers could become the public face of the species.
During the Galactic Civil War, the Galactic Empire claimed Morseer as its territory after it conquered the Drackmarians, the dominant species in the area and the nominal masters of the Morseerian colonists. The Empire organized a concerted effort to find the Morseerian homeworld, which drove many Morseerians to clandestinely support the Alliance to Restore the Republic and thus sabotage such prying. This subterfuge worked, as the Empire failed to discover the location of the planet.
BIOLOGY AND APPEARANCE:Morseerians were a sentient, bipedal species whose bodies were essentially humanoid. With rare exceptions, though, Morseerians had four arms where humanoids had two. While the upper two limbs were similar or slightly larger in size to those of a comparable Human, the lower pair, which extended from a second set of shoulders, were slightly smaller. These extra arms made them adept climbers and multi-taskers and aided them while grappling in combat or wielding multiple weapons. While all Morseerians had opposable thumbs, individuals had varying numbers of digits on their hands: some had five per hand, others had four, while still others made do with three.
Morseerians had oblong, conical heads covered in overlapping scales of brown, gray, white, green, purple, or tan. The rest of their bodies were covered in greenish, translucent skin that revealed the inner workings of their organs and the flow of their blood. Their large, black eyes lacked pupils and were located above a tiny nose and a triangular mouth slit. Some members of the species had keen hearing. Both males and females had slender builds similar to those of Humans in their early teens, although breasts distinguished adult females from males. Morseerians stood from 1.5 to 1.7 meters tall. They entered adolescence at age 13 and adulthood at 18, and their life expectancy was 80 standard years.
In standard atmospheres, Morseerian biology required them to take special measures that made them look bizarre to outsiders. Members of the species required methane-rich gas for respiration; exposure to an oxygen-rich, methane-poor atmosphere suffocated a Morseerian in minutes. Accordingly, those Morseerians encountered by outsiders almost always appeared in full environment suits. A typical example of this protective gear was form-fitting—although looser suits were also found—and included a complex breath mask. It used an inbuilt supply of methane to create an atmosphere similar to that of the Morseerian home planet. Masks featured goggles to protect the eyes and straps to attach to the head; a side effect was that they made the wearer's voice sound mechanical, like a droid's vocoder. The durable suits rarely needed repairs or replacement and were built with redundant air pockets and filtration systems so that they still offered protection in the event of a tear or a puncture. Although inconvenient, such suits provided additional protection against airborne toxins. On the other hand, they made their wearers vulnerable to fire, which could ignite the methane supply.
CULTURE AND HISTORY:Morseerians were introverted, laconic, and secretive. They preferred to keep to themselves, talking to strangers only to obtain information from them. This loner nature prompted Morseerians to avoid confrontation, although they were more than willing to defend themselves if targeted by others.
The Morseerian obsession with secrecy was perhaps most pronounced with regard to the name and location of their homeworld. The planet was uncharted by any but the Morseerians themselves, although rumor placed it in the Outer Rim Territories. A Morseerian would rather die than give up the location of the world. As a result, little was known about their native culture and customs. The Morseerians were at least nominally under the protection of the Drackmarian species. Although the details of the relationship were unclear to outsiders, at least some Morseerians entered into individual contracts with Drackmarian overlords. Breaking such an agreement earned not only the enmity of the Drackmarian master but also a price on the Morseerian's head.
Morseerians spoke a language of the same name. Many learned to speak Basic] or Huttese, although these were by no means universal skills. Morseerians had two-part names. Examples included Chall Bekan, Myor Devker, Shalthan Leeru, Nabrun Leids, Bargeth Relb, Nilek Rillion, and Flyrl Sacorbel.
The species had access to galactic-standard technology and manufactured hyperspace-capable starships. Morseerian craft were oval-shaped vessels that ranged in size from small shuttles to bulk freighters. Such ships provided their crew and passengers with a methane-rich atmosphere so that their occupants could move about freely with no need for environment suits.
The Morseerians evolved on a world known only to them, rumored to be somewhere in the Outer Rim. They were introduced to the greater galaxy some 12,000 years before the Battle of Yavin. At some point, they learned the workings of hyperspace technology and spread from their homeworld, whose location they managed to protect from outsiders. They also perfected their own starship designs. Morseerians found a niche just on the edges of galactic society, many taking up employment as galactic traders. At some point, they encountered merchants from the Squib species and established favorable trading status. The Morseerians founded colonies, the locations of which were not as closely guarded as that of their homeworld. The species came to be known as Morseerians after the colony world of Morseer, in the Morseer system of the Outer Rim Territories. They preferred environments conducive to their physiology; Morseer had a methane-rich atmosphere, for example, with vegetation beyond recognition to species only familiar with the flora of worlds with nitrogen–oxygen atmospheres.
At some point, the Morseerians came into conflict with a fellow methane-breathing species, the Drackmarians. The reptilians conquered the colony of Morseer, and the Morseerians became a client species under the protectorship of the Drackmarians as part of the greater Quelii sector.
During the Galactic Civil War, the Drackmarians opposed the Galactic Empire but were defeated and subjugated. Morseer was among the worlds claimed by the Empire as spoils of war, although the species officially remained clients of the Drackmarians. The new government instigated an initiative to locate the Morseerian homeworld, and the four-armed species began to secretly report to the Rebel Alliance on Imperial troop and fleet deployments. Nevertheless, few Morseerians openly supported the Rebellion, and a few even aided the Empire instead. In the end, the efforts of the Rebel sympathizers paid off, and the species' home system remained shrouded in secrecy. Following the Battle of Endor of 4 ABY, Morseer and the Quelii sector came under the control of the Imperial warlord Zsinj, only to be annexed by the remnants of the Empire upon Zsinj's death. Nearly a century later, Morseer fell within a region of space controlled by Darth Krayt as part of his Sith Empire.
IN THE GALAXY:Although far from common and rarely seen further toward the Core Worlds than the Expansion Region, Morseerians were encountered on their colonies and at the fringes of society on other worlds. Morseerian spacers preferred ships of their own design or outdated freighters from other manufacturers that had been modified to provide a methane atmosphere. Crews of such vessels tended to be other Morseerians or members of species comfortable in such conditions, such as Chadra-Fan and Gand.
Because many Morseerians in the greater galaxy took up trading, merchants were in many ways the public face of the species. They preferred to deal with partners with whom they had enjoyed good relations and a bit of luck in the past, particularly Squibs. Morseerians could be spotted in cantinas and space ports across the galaxy, including Void Station, the Lazy Bergruutfa Cantina on Betha II, StarForge Station, the Power Dive on Ord Mantell, and Chalmun's Cantina on Tatooine.
A Morseerian guard served the Black Sun Vigo Darnada in 33 BBY; like the rest of Darnada's entourage, the Morseerian was killed in a strike by the Sith Darth Maul. A pair of Morseerian pirates had a base on Tatooine; when on the planet, they sometimes traded with the Toydarian trader Watto for spare parts. In 32 BBY, the pirates had accumulated a large stash of hard currency in various denominations. While in the next room, they heard someone in the treasure chamber, but upon investigation it seemed like nothing more than a womp rat. Later, though, they heard the unmistakable sound of someone going through their treasure chest. There, they found a young Human boy—unbeknownst to them, a nine-year old slave named Anakin Skywalker, who was leading a group of escaped child slaves to a rendezvous with smugglers who would take them from the planet. The child attacked them with a beamdrill, the flame of which would have ignited the methane supplies in their suits. When the boy escaped with a portion of their loot into the sewers, the narrow entrance would not permit the Morseerians to follow him, and he got away.
Another Morseerian spacer of note was Nabrun Leids. Although more than qualified as a fighter pilot, he broke his contract with a Drackmarian warlord named Omogg who operated in the Quelii sector. Leids earned a bounty for his trouble and fled into the Outer Rim. There he traded a life of high-speed dogfights for one of smuggling. Leids flew a modified Ghtroc Industries 720 freighter called the Scarlet Vertha and specialized in moving cargos between the planet Sisar and the Triellus Trade Route that led to Tatooine. He offered his services to transport passengers anywhere they might need to go—for the right price. At some point, Leids began a partnership with the Bimm smuggler Rycar Ryjerd. Although the two eventually parted company and found themselves competing for the same cargos, they maintained a competitive camaraderie. In fact, Leids and Ryjerd were both present at the Mos Eisley Cantina in 0 BBY when Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker chartered the services of Han Solo and Chewbacca for transit to Alderaan. In 3 ABY, Leids and his crew entered a smuggling race against Ryjerd and others. They took on a cargo from the Shistavanen Mal Biron on the planet Sriluur with the understanding that the team who delivered their cargo first would win a larger and more profitable cargo later.
Chall Bekan was a Morseerian who lived on Tatooine. During the Galactic Civil War, he became the leader of a cadre of non-Human informants. Bekan and his associates reported on the activities of both Jabba the Hutt and the Rebel Alliance.
Some time after the establishment of the New Republic, two Morseerians were present in a cantina patronized by smuggler Han Solo on an unidentified planet. The first was sitting at the bar, but the second burst into the cantina and seized a young Human who had been playing sabacc with Solo. The Morseerian claimed the boy was the son of Senator Amara and that he would be taken hostage for the Black Sun criminal organization. Nevertheless, the Morseerian was killed when Solo shot him with his blaster and freed the prisoner.
No known Force-using tradition existed among the Morseerians, although some were rumored to have been Force adepts capable of tapping into the energy field. No Morseerian was ever known to have become a Jedi, nor were there any records of encounters between the species and the Jedi Order. Nevertheless, the fact that few outsiders ever saw a Morseerian without an environment suit meant that the presence of a Morseerian Jedi could not be ruled out.
APPEARANCES:Star Wars: Darth Maul 2
Episode I Adventures 8: Trouble on Tatooine
Episode I Adventures Game Book 8: Trouble on Tatooine
A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's Tale webstrip
The Hovel on Terk Street
Smuggler's Blues (Ambiguously canonical source)
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (First appearance)
Star Wars 2: Six Against the Galaxy
Star Wars: A New Hope - The Special Edition
Star Wars Manga: A New Hope
Star Wars 7: New Planets, New Perils (Possible appearance)
Star Wars 8: Eight for Aduba-3 (Possible appearance)
Rookies: Rendezvous
"Counterstrike" - Star Wars Adventure Journal 8
Star Wars Empire: Idiot's Array
Shadows of the Empire comic
X-wing Rogue Squadron 32: Mandatory Retirement, Part 1
Tall Tales (Ambiguously canonical source)
Star Wars: Chewbacca (Appears in flashback(s))
"The Emperor's Court" (Non-canonical appearance)
SOURCES:Star Wars Customizable Card Game – Premiere Limited (Card: Nabrun Leids) (First identified as Morseerian)
Star Wars: The Power of the Force (1995) (Cantina Aliens)
The Truce at Bakura Sourcebook
Wretched Hives of Scum & Villainy (Picture only)
Star Wars Chronicles
Secrets of the Sisar Run
The Far Orbit Project
Star Wars Customizable Card Game – Official Tournament Sealed Deck (Card: Chall Bekan)
Star Wars Encyclopedia
Star Wars: Behind the Magic
Alien Anthology
The Official Star Wars Fact File 22 (CAN5, Mos Eisley Cantina Characters)
Ultimate Alien Anthology
Hero's Guide
Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy
Star Wars: The Saga Collection (Nabrun Leids & Kabe)
Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary
StarWars.com Cantina Roll-Call: Shedding Light on Some Alien Aliases on StarWars.com (backup link on Archive.org)
The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
I would like to thank Wookieepedia for this info.
