Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Invid's Guide to the Star Wars Universe: Alien Species #21

201. Dantari. The Dantari appear to essentially be cavepeople with wonky proportions (sometimes). That's pretty boring, but these cavefolk worship Imperial war machines and stormtroopers. (They apparently witnessed a battle of some kind, and were particularly taken with the big walkers.)

Rating: 3/5. That's an awesome cultural tidbit.

202. Dashade. The Dashade are cool-looking guys who are resistant to the Force (presumably mostly the mind powers) and to radiation. (Yay, randomness!) They are thus often recruited as anti-Jedi assassins. (It's debated as to whether or not one of them was in the cantina scene.)

Rating: 4/5. Eh, I just like 'em.

203. Dashta eels. Despite being regular little old eels, some Dashta eels are sapient. Also, many non-sapient Dashta eels are Force-sensitive, and supposedly "the first species known to be so."

I guess I could believe that some of the other ones are too obscure...

Rating: 3/5. They're mostly just weird, but not in a bad way.

204. Dawferim. Dawferim are known for having a five hundred year long feud with some other guys. ...And other than the fact that they formed a defense coalition to handle said feud, that's it.

Rating: 1/5. I've got nothin' to say.

205. Dazouri. The Dazouri are little guys who are generally supposed to be shrewd and rational, but when upset they get huge and become homicidal maniacs. So they're a species that literally hulks out.

Rating: 3/5. I'm forgiving them their blatant defiance of mass conservation.

206. Dbarians. Dbarians are apparently essentially asexual octopus/cuttlefish people. They are described as "a worrisome race." As in "cause for others to worry" or "worry a lot themselves?" Based on the fact that they apparently also spend lots of time "evaluating" things, I'd guess that it's the latter.

Rating: 2/5. It'd be nicer if less ambiguous words were used in this kind of thing, although I don't think that affected the rating. (There's just not quite enough there to be exciting.)

207. Defel. The Defel are also known as wraiths because despite being huge hairy types, they usually look to most other species like they are merely shadows; i.e. they border on invisible in most conditions. The most notable Defel is probably one who appeared in a couple of Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire books. Who was he? Some random thug.

Rating: 3/5. Something interesting that I think was lost later on is that Timothy Zahn also indicated that Defel (and a number of other species, most notably the Noghri) were more difficult for most to sense with the Force.

208. Delorf. The Delorf... may have been a myth.

Rating: 3/5. I find the idea that there are mythical sapient beings even in an ancient, well-explored, and highly advanced place to be entertaining.

209. Delphanians. The Delphanians sound very ugly, and apparently frequently pierced their lips, sometimes to the point where said piercings jangled.

Incidentally, I find lip piercings unpleasant.

Rating: 3/5. They have a bit more info than that. Incidentally, they were created for Death Troopers, a Star Wars zombie story.

210. Delrakkins. The Delrakkins apparently resemble lizards and live underground. (Is that just a clumsy attempt at describing them as reptilian? Because not all reptilian creatures are lizards, and except for snakes, in fact, most creatures we call reptiles aren't very closely related to each other or lizards. Crocodiles are much more closely related to birds than lizards and snakes, and turtles are off by themselves somewhere. End zoological nerd rant.) The Delrakkins also were once given poisoned bacta (that stuff that was used to heal Luke up in Empire Strikes Back), although the Delrakkins were saved.

Rating: 3/5. I think they get a point because their name is aesthetically pleasing to me.

-Signing off.

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