Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Invid's Guide to the Star Wars Universe: Alien Species #15

141. Celegian. The first sentence in the Celegian species' "biology and appearance" section is "Celegians appear to many humanoids as 'floating brains.'"

There was a Celegian Jedi named Ooroo.

So the existence of Celegians demonstrates the existence of floating brain Jedi.

Best Star Wars alien ever, or best anything ever?

Making it maybe even a little better than that, they couldn't breathe oxygen, so they travelled around in life support tanks.

Giant brain in jar Jedi, you guys.

Rating: 5/5. See above.

142. Celestial. Celestials are an unknown group of dudes from the past who did all kinds of big stuff, like moving planets around through the galaxy, and may have partially shaped hyperspace itself to try to isolate various nasty things from the galaxy's past.

And that's about all we know.

Rating: 2/5. There's nothing really wrong with the Celestials as such; it's just that there's not really anything right with them either. If it were to turn out that they're the Marvel Comics Celestials created by Jack Kirby, I'd probably bust a gut, though.

143. Cemas. We know that Cemas (or possibly Cemases, or something) have feet, because somebody helped one to its feet.

And that's it.

Rating: 1/5. Feet? That's all we know? On the other hand, I suppose a Jedi that was nothing but feet could be amusing.

144. Cephalon. Cephalons apparently have multiple brains that relay thoughts to each other; despite their lack of sensory organs, they also can perceive four dimensions (the three physical ones and time) and thus don't properly distinguish between past, present and future. Whatever the heck that means.

The best thing to come from this is that they are so incomprehensible that one character claims that not only do Cephalons not make sense, they make "anti-sense."

Rating: 3/5. Anti-sense mutually annihilates with sense, leaving only jumbled, formless information.

145. Cerean. If you saw Episode I, you may have noticed a dude with a white mustache and beard and a huge tall head (he got like one line) who was not named in the film (his name is Ki-Adi-Mundi). Possibly the most interesting note involving Cereans (since there's obligatory stuff about their huge heads making them smart and junk) is that male Cereans have shorter lifespans than female Cereans, meaning that there aren't as many, and Cereans also have low birthrates, so polygamy is a common practice among them.

And even though Jedi aren't normally allowed to marry or whatever, Ki-Adi-Mundi had eight wives, because the Jedi made exceptions for members of species for whom breeding is desperately important.

Rating: 3/5. Because the existence of Cereans means there's someone I can jokingly call "pimp-daddy Jedi" as a result. Or "(old-fashioned) Mormon Jedi," take your pick.

146. Cha'a. Cha'a are a reptilian species who apparently don't discourage sibling cannibalism and like eating things alive. (Cut that out, writer guys.) They are often described as wily and ambitious. (What did I just say, writer guys?) They are also known for being technically proficient, designing excellent technology and stuff, and some were students at Luke Skywalker's Jedi academy. (THANK YOU, writer guys.)

Rating: 2.5/5. I don't like giving halves, but the fact that I'm almost exactly split down the middle (they have two stereotypical reptilian traits contrasting less stereotypical traits and looking rather interesting) makes me think it's appropriate here.

147. Cha'wen'he. Cha'wen'he are birdish things with three heads and their brains in their bodies. They apparently have finger lips. They also have trouble recognizing personal property.

Rating: 4/5. They're very alien (look at the page picture) and elegantly simple.

148. Chadra-Fan. Chadra-Fan are bat-faced "rodent" people, i.e. they're really short next to adult humans, and have seven distinct senses which are all much more sensitive than human senses. Their high metabolisms supposedly mean that they can work constantly, and only need two-hour naps (that's not how high metabolisms necessarily work, writer guys), and they have short lifespans compared to humans (although that is at least partly how high metabolisms work). Also, they come from a planet called Chad.

Rating: 3/5. Nothing special, nothing awful. Just another Star Wars alien species. Move along.

149. Chagrian. That huge guy with horns who yells at the Senate for "order" when it erupts in the no-confidence tizzy in Episode I was a Chagrian. Apparently they're amphibious, resistant to radiation, and the men once used their horns to fight each other for mates.

I suspect that there's some kind of joke one could make there, but I'm not sure what it is.

Rating: 3/5. Move along.

150. Chakrata. Apparently, the Chakrata are non-canonical because they didn't make it in; Timothy Zahn seems to have once had plans for them, though. He apparently once mentioned them at a convention while playing an RPG.

Rating: 3/5. While the information is sketchy, the fact that we know about them because an author (who, as I've mentioned many times, is one of my favorites) was playing a game and name-dropped them is a pretty cool story.

-Signing off.

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