INFO: Ugors were a species of large, sentient, unicellular organisms native to an unknown planet in the Paradise system. Members of the species were able to change their physical appearance and create pseudopodia to perform the functions of organs and simple tools. The highly efficient Ugor brain, located inside the nucleus, was capable of controlling up to 30 pseudopodia at once. In their natural form, they oozed about as blobs, but many Ugors wore environment suits and adopted a humanoid morphology when dealing with outsiders.
After ruining their once lush planet with industrial toxins and overpopulation, the Ugors evolved the ability to eat garbage and eventually began to worship it. They then set out from their home system—after having sliced up its planets to lay the groundwork for a system-spanning junk yard—and took on the role of scavengers and garbage collectors in the galaxy, bringing them into competition with other species, such as the Squibs. Ugor waste recovery companies reported to the Holy Ugor Taxation Collection Agency, which held authority over all members of the species in the galaxy. Considered an extremely unpleasant, obnoxious race by most other species, Ugors nonetheless became the galaxy's most successful garbage collectors during the Galactic Civil War. They reached their apex of influence after obtaining a prototype gravity well projector from the wreckage of the first Death Star and using it to organize their system-spanning junkyard. Nevertheless, a team of Rebel Alliance and Squib operatives removed the object and sent the system back into disarray.
RACE: Ugor
HEIGHT: 1 to 2 Meters in Diameter (ball form)
SKIN: Green
DISTINCTION: Unicellular, amorphous
LANGUAGE: Ugor
HOMEWORLD:The Ugor homeworld was a planet in the Paradise system (known as J21-Z65 on most star charts) in the Airam sector. The Ugor species evolved on the world. Although knowledge of the planet had been lost by the time of the Galactic Civil War, the Imperial sentientologist Obo Rin speculated that conditions there must have been perfect to allow for large, unicellular beings like the Ugors to evolve. It must have had easily obtainable nutrients, for example, and an absence of predatory species.
The planet also had vast natural resources, which the Ugors used to develop new technologies. This preceded their philosophical development, however, and the species unwisely overpopulated the world and polluted it with industrial waste. Rather than rectify the situation, though, the Ugors evolved the ability to survive in such conditions.
After the Ugors developed space flight and took to roaming their system on starships, they blew their homeworld to pieces (along with the other worlds of the Paradise system) to make way for a system-spanning junkyard.
BIOLOGY AND APPEARANCE:Ugors were sentient, unicellular protozoans who ranged from one to two meters in diameter. They were considered exotic for being one of the few sentient species to fall outside the standard groupings of birds, mammals, reptiles, etc. Their bodies consisted of cytoplasm, which could be green in some individuals, bound by an outer, slime-coated membrane. Whereas multicellular beings used specialized, permanent organs to sense and interact with their environment, Ugors employed complicated organelles. One of these was the brain, housed in the central nucleus. Unlike the brains of multicellular beings, which relied on neural networks to perform cognitive functions such as information storage and abstract reasoning, those of the Ugors relied on individual molecules. The molecular structure of these processes allowed the brain to operate several times faster and more flexibly than that of a multicellular creature.
One dramatic example of this was the species' ability to rapidly exude pseudopodia devoted to myriad functions. Ugors could mold their cytoplasm into dozens of separate limbs adapted to communicate information, manipulate objects, and facilitate sight, hearing, smell, and taste. In fact, by creating appropriate sensory pseudopodia, Ugors could hear and speak at frequencies beyond those of many other species and see in lower lighting conditions. They could sprout up to 30 pseudopodia at will, processing a vast amount of information in the process; a multicellular brain would have required several times as long to accomplish the same task.
Ugors were amorphic, able to assume nearly any shape. A member of the species might exude extra limbs to wield weapons[5] or create several smiling mouths to placate a nervous customer. An Ugor might generate a tool-shaped pseudopod to act as a bag, knife, lock-pick, shovel, umbrella, or vise. The beings could fluidly adjust their natural abilities as well. By reducing the number of processes devoted to perception, for example, an Ugor might boost its strength or agility.
Nevertheless, most Ugors tended to adopt a default appearance and skill set. A globular form was most comfortable and easy to maintain, even though this body shape forced the Ugor to ooze from place to place at a somewhat slower pace than a member of a multicellular species of similar mass. Those Ugors who came into contact with members of other species often adopted a humanoid appearance, if only barely: the protozoan might take on a stocky body with two thick, handless arms and two short legs, with a mass of eyestalks projecting from where a head might otherwise be. Such a body structure required concentration and was difficult to maintain for long periods.
Ugors sometimes wore tailor-made, armored, full-body environment suits with large, dark helmets. Whatever their form, most other beings found them unappealing to look at. Squibs found their odor repugnant as well.
Ugors were natural predators and required a large amount of food. Nevertheless, their evolution had equipped them with the ability to digest substances that would prove toxic to other species, and they could subsist on other species' trash.
CULTURE AND HISTORY:Ugor society revolved around trading and scavenging; they were famed for providing equipment to nascent civilizations and for salvaging wreckage from failed ones. The beings were supremely adaptable and astutely able to get what they wanted from others. Ugor business deals were extremely complex, incorporating opaque knots of loans, interest, and payment plans that were anathema to their rivals, the Squibs. If an Ugor sensed desperation in a potential business partner, the protozoan made every effort to squeeze the other party dry. The Paradise system was constantly visited by beings from all corners of the galaxy searching for older equipment or technology, and although Ugors demanded a hefty price for their goods, they were often the only resource for certain archaic parts. They excelled at those skills that were useful in their pursuit of rubbish collection: a member of the species' education emphasized skills related to scavenging and starship operation (although members of the species rarely became more than passable pilots).
Nevertheless, the Ugor love for trash had a deeper significance: they worshiped the stuff. The beings considered pieces of rubbish to be holy relics, and this zealous devotion led Ugors to fanatically and aggressively collect it. Upon discovering a dump site, an Ugor might first open fire on anyone present and attempt to drive them away. To this end, the species' starships were heavily armed and Ugors themselves often sported multiple pseudopodia specifically intended to carry weapons. They would then attempt to collect as much garbage as possible.
Non-Ugors found members of the species insufferably pompous and sanctimonious, which gave the species a reputation as unpleasant to deal with and, all things considered, best avoided. The species felt that games of chance, haggling, and con jobs were the Ugor way and even considered such behavior virtuous. The species had a tendency to start arguments and make bombastic religious proclamations. They rarely warmed up to outsiders, strongly preferring the company of their own kind.
Ugors reserved a special hatred for the Squib species, whom they considered to be their mortal enemies. The unicellular scavengers considered it a noble goal to scoop up salvage before any Squib interests could arrive. Their hatred could sometimes turn to violence: some Ugors hoped for nothing less than the extermination of the entire Squib species. The conflict evolved into outright war on occasion, at least in the minds of the players. The feelings were mutual, and the Squibs considered the Ugors to be their primary rivals.
Members of the species rarely professed a love for anything other than garbage or food. They were obsessed with the latter, though not to the level of the Ortolan species. Their cuisine was so complex that most recipes required 12 manipulatory appendages to prepare correctly. Ugor favorites included such delicacies as free-floating fungal fondu, glazed glucose pate, mitochondria crunchy surprise, photo-lipids in brazened fatty-acid sauce, single-celery soda, spirogyra gelatin, and Ugorian spore-gruel. Offers of victuals could brighten an Ugor's perception of the one offering it, although the change in attitude rarely went the other way.
The species' native language, which existed in both spoken and written form, was also known as Ugor. Most Ugors learned Basic, and a sizable number studied a trade language, such as Bocce, or the tongue of their rivals, Squibbian. Ugors could speak these languages by creating the appropriate communication apparatus, although their pronunciation often had a watery or slimy tinge. For example, the word give might be pronounced gib, pilgrims as bilgrims, them as dem, and sinner as zinner. The species' names typically consisted of two parts. Example names were ArrGack, GrrKack, and SplrMuck.
The species evolved on an unknown planet in the Paradise system (known as J21-Z65 on most star charts) in an area of the galaxy called the Airam sector. Whereas evolution on other worlds equipped multicellular creatures with specialized cells to respond to a changing environment, the Ugors instead developed new cell parts, a process significantly more involved. No in-depth study of their homeworld ever took place, but Imperial sentientologist Obo Rin reasoned that the planet must have been ideal, with easy access to nutrients and few if any natural predators, for such large protozoans to survive.
Ugors used their world's vast natural resources to develop complex technology well before they had established any significant bodies of philosophy. This inhibited their prudence and allowed them to reproduce irresponsibly and pollute their homeworld to the point where its life-sustaining capabilities reached a tipping point. Nevertheless, evolution continued apace: rather than being forced to make hard choices to restore their once lush world, the Ugors simply adapted to the mess and gained the ability to subsist on nourishment that would be toxic to other species.
From eating garbage, the Ugors took to worshiping it. A species-wide government known as the Holy Ugor Taxation and Collection Agency came to dominate political and religious life. Sometime between 1000 and 25 BBY, after learning the secrets of hyperspace technology, the Ugors spread across the galaxy, gathering refuse and bringing it back to their home system. Sometime before 17 BBY, they came into contact with other scavenger species, such as the Jawas and Squibs, and worked to marginalize these rivals. The Squibs in particular, whose homeward was nearby in the same sector, proved apt competitors in the waste recovery market, and the two species developed an intense hatred for one another.
The Ugors eventually turned their archaic but formidable weaponry on the worlds of their own system and methodically blasted them into rubble. The process took more than 100 standard years to complete, but in the end, the Paradise system became a massive salvage yard free of any obstructing planets, and the Ugors lived exclusively aboard their ships. The junk floating in their system increased with time, and they encouraged other civilizations to dump their waste there too. The Ugors also made incursions into Trianii Space, where they planned to collect junk. However, they were forced out by the Trianii Rangers.
By the early days of the Galactic Empire, the species had reached the top of the galactic sanitation business, and more and more worlds came to depend on them to cart away their rubbish. Reasoning that pilgrims had a right to holy relics found in Paradise, the Ugors opened up the system to outsiders who wished to sift through its expansive dumps in search of useful parts—for the appropriate "donation". The Ugors then secured an exclusive contract to clean up after Imperial vessels, which jettisoned their waste prior to jumping to hyperspace, and to receive garbage dumped from Imperial ships.
As the chaotic conglomeration of garbage in Paradise grew, the species found it more and more difficult to control. Within hours of the Battle of Yavin, Ugor salvagers arrived at the site of the destroyed Death Star and swooped up immense hunks of the station's wreckage before being chased off by Imperial vessels. Among the Ugors' take was a prototype gravity well projector. They carted it back to their home system, an event their holy tomes referred to as the "Coming of the Prime Mover." Their priest-scientists studied the relic and managed to reactivate it. They dubbed it the Prime Mover and its associated housing the Holy of Holies. Placed in a key location in their system and protected in a shroud of rubbish, they used its power to organize the vast swathe of garbage. The added organization made Paradise more attractive to outside visitors and gave their salvage fleet greater efficiency and profit-making potential.
It was not to last. The projector was also wanted by the gangster Jabba the Hutt and the Squib king, Ebareebaveebeedee. A Rebel Alliance strike force and a Squib guide disguised themselves as Imperials, infiltrated the Paradise system, and stole the Prime Mover. The Paradise system collapsed back into disorder, and the Squib Reclamation Fleet took the opportunity to steal as much garbage as they could before the battlewagons could respond.
The Ugors and their system had fallen under the influence of Darth Krayt and his Sith Empire by 137 ABY.
