The Sith don’t care about preserving endangered species. They’re perfectly happy to see the strongest survive on many planets, and will import anything they find useful. (This is one of the reasons you keep running into the same critters on different planets: if the Sith didn’t import them for the arena, the Ithorians probably brought them in to help a society recover from ecological disaster. And vermin stow away on starships just like they did sailing ships in days gone by...)
When a species takes over an area, they usually introduce their own favorite life forms and attempting to inhibit anything that doesn’t match their preferences. In some places, one can see the results of several successive tenants, with the hardier species holding on from previous ecologies.
There is general agreement under palæoxenobiologists that about a billion years ago, most of the habitable planets in the galaxy were seeded with the basics of eukaryotic life by an ancient sentient race that has been dubbed the Seeders. (The timing and lack of mutation is too much of a coincidence, and only the most hard-nosed skeptics believe that it happened through panspermia.) Cells from numerous species from dozens of distant worlds utilize aerobic metabolisms, common fundamental mechanisms and DNA sequences, and the mitochondria and chloroplasts that show up are clearly related. (Though other photosynthesis mechanisms do occasionally win out.) There is a clear preference for left-handed proteins and sugars, leading to beings from most planets being able to take nourishment from alien cuisine (though the flavor may be appreciated very differently).
These are dangerous creatures, usually predators, that are imported to fight in the arena. They often escape into the wild (or are released to breed on their own) and provide business for hunters who stun them and bring them in for venations. Acklay (2 3 4). Gundarks (2). Nexu are also kept as guard animals. Rancors are very popular, and are the primary reason anyone visits Dathomir. manka cats need to be quite hungry to make a good show in a venation. Kell dragons are popular, and some expert beasthandlers have managed to propagate the smaller breed of Krayt dragon for the arena; the dragon’s pearl is usually the prize for the person who can defeat them. (It takes thirty years for a hatchling to grow to a size worthy of fighting in the arena, and the best pearls are from the ones who are past seventy, so they are a long-term investment; farming them is only marginally cheaper than importing them from Tatooine. More often, they’re simply turned loose in the wild with a subcutaneous tracking beacon implanted under their spinal ridge.) The Coromon headhunter, from Fresia. The Caridan combat arachnid is popular because its shell makes excellent trophies. For variety, it can also be fun to send out a flock of smaller, nasty creatures like kayven whistlers. Some are used purely for hazards, such as a pit full of brachno-jags.
Arenas are often built around sarlacci, and many troubles have ensued when someone wanting to build an arena starts by introducing a young female sarlacc to an area and then overfeeding it into sinking its roots for the long term. The spores are fairly expensive. Sarlacci prefer wet environments, and arenas built around them are often quite humid.
The Dianoga (2
3
4)
cannot be referred to as domesticated
, but these
so-called garbage squids
are used to break down waste and
keep disposal systems clear.
Corellian spukami are a diminutive cousin of the sandpanther and have a traditional job hunting vermin; some breeds are the descendants of many generations of stalking the cargo holds of light freighters for scuttling stowaways. The pittin and the Alsakan felinx are more creatures in the same niche.
Massiffs are reptilian quadrupeds that work as guard animals.
Squalls are cute, fuzzy lagomorphs from Chandrila. While many species see them as pets, others see them as dinner, which can lead to interesting altercations.
The eco-trendy have gene-reservoir pets
, which are endangered
charismatic megafauna who have had their genes for size and ferocity
carefully inactivated, checksummed, and backed up in a
creature’s genome, and replaced with ones that make them
domesticable pets. (A comparable stunt on Earth would have miniature
tigers, lions, and snow leopards with the temperaments of housecats
and the potential to be engineered back into their untamed variants...
or have them revert within a few dozen generations in the wild.)
The bantha can be used as riding beast, usually with a howdah. Eopies (2 3 4 5)) are a popular export from Tatooine to other worlds where it’s hot year-round, and good sources of milk and meat.
Varactyl are used as mounts on warmer worlds. Dactillions are occasionally exported from Utapau to serve as flying steeds, as are Thrantas from Alderaan.
Reeks serve as pack and plow animals, and are used in exhibition sports (like bullfighting on Earth).
The bantha (1 2 3) is a common beast of burden, as well as a source of milk, red meat, wool, and leather (whose quality ranges all the way up to luxury goods). While their ability to forage resembles that of a Terran goat, banthas who are given cheap, evil-smelling bantha fodder tend to produce less than tasty milk; for anything good, you want grain-fed or grass-fed dairy banthas. Their milk is a pale blue; churning it into bantha butter makes it a vivid green, and cheeses vary from sky-blue Alderaanian brie to the olive-green Corellian cheddar. (General consensus on the worst alcoholic beverage in the galaxy is Tusken Khoomis, which is fermented on Tatooine by Sand People whose banthas have been living off desert scrub.) Banthas can survive anywhere from the desert to the subarctic, though a good dairy bantha needs to live in a temperate climate. (Refs: New Essential Guide to Alien Species pp16–7.)
Nerfs are another source of milk, red meat, and leather, and are much tastier than banthas. They require more care and can only thrive in temperate climates. (Refs: New Essential Guide to Alien Species pp120–1.) They originated on Alderaan, but are now found on many agrarian worlds.
Traladons (2) are a Corellian food mammal, a provider of milk and meat.
Barves. Tomuons have been exported from Askaj to other desert planets; their wool is comparable to cashmere.
Galactic commerce has brought vermin native to hundreds of different worlds into competition for the roles of rats, cockroaches, and pigeons. The rat niche includes the Alsakan rodus.
Assassins often employ hunters to travel to Indoumodo in Wild Space to procure such poisonous creatures as the kouhun.
Creatures significant enough to make it into Star Wars Galaxies— categorize this: Zucca boar (2), Woolamander (2), Vir Vur (2), Vesp (2), Verne (2), Veermok (2), Tybis (2), Torton (2), Thune (2), Squall (2), Snorbal (2), Corellian slice hound (2), Shear mites (2), Sharnaff (2), Corellian sand panther, Ronto (2), Razor cat, Rancor (2), Pugoriss, Piket (2), Narglatch (2), Mott (2), Merek, Mawgax (a Corellian creature), Malkloc (2), Langlatch (2), Kwi (2), Kusak (2), Krahbu (2), Kliknik (2), Kimogilla (2), Kima (another Corellian creature), Kahmurra, Kaadu (2), Ikopi (2), Huurton (2), Huf Dun, Hermit Spider (Corellian creature), Gurrek, Gurrcat (2), Gurnaset (2), Guf Drolg (Corellian creature), Gualama (2), Gronda (2), Graul (2), Gnort, Fambaa, Falumpaset (2), Durni (2), Dune Lizard, Dewback (2), Dalyrake (2), Cu-Pa (2), Choku (a Corellian creature), Carrion spat (2), Bolma, Bolle Bol, Bol (2), Bocatt, Borra (2), Blurrg (2), Bantha (2), Bagaraset (2), Creatures category.
Adegan eels on Ossus, fit for royalty. Butter newts are tasty.
There is an ecosystem of silicon-based life forms that live in vacuum and near-vacuum all across the galaxy. (TO DO: work out details of silicon biochemistry. Silicones can function well in a sulfuric acid environment; see World-Building p170.) All of them are able to maintain their existence using sunlight and absorbing materials from asteroids, as even the predators need to spend long periods of time dormant between meals. The top-level predator is the space slug, which preys on mynocks and plasma leeches, which in turn feed on the filter-feeding hull barnacles, which deploy fine electrostatically charged nets to catch small particles and the spores of vacuum lichen. Mynocks are particularly annoying, since their photoelectric metabolism also lets them draw energy directly from power couplings, which encourages them to also attempt to absorb minerals from hullmetal at an accelerated rate compared to the barnacles and lichen. Many space stations keep space slugs to feed on the mynocks.
The sentient Silika of Dohu VII are silicon-based, but their common ancestor with mynocks is unicellular; they are not adapted to living in vacuum.
Life on Earth can be found in amazing places. Chloracidobacterium thermophilum lives at 66°C and photosynthesizes as well; something like it could be the basis for an ecosystem on a too-hot planet.
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