Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Invid's Guide to the Star Wars Universe: Alien Species (#65)

641. Lontars. For reasons that aren't especially clear, the Lontars invaded Batorine, homeworld of the Blood Carvers, and nearly wiped them out. (The Old Republic rescued the Blood Carvers, who at the time were a rather primitive species, and in the galaxy's present, more Blood Carvers live in the safety of Coruscant than on their homeworld.)

Shame on you, Lontars, for trying to kill off a group with such an awesome name.

On the other hand, the Lontars have rather amusing cranial structures.

Rating: 2/5. The nebulousness of their motivations raises many questions, but at least they look kind of neat.

642. Lowen. The Lowen are supposedly "near-humans," which often is used to describe a group that can interbreed with humans.

This is... interesting, as the Lowen have fleshy tendrils instead of hair on their heads, and their skin apparently is too big for them and hangs off certain areas on them in big folds.

The picture of one is, despite that, rather pleasant to look at.

Rating: 3/5. I like how they look.

643. Lucents. These ambiguously canonical crystalline and arachnoid lifeforms apparently perceive the Force in a unique fashion that allows them to effortlessly navigate hyperspace; they also have technology that allows them to easily navigate the treacherous region that they call home (said region, incidentally, is definitely canonical). The Lucents offered to sell a bit of this technology to the galaxy at large, but were completely unwilling to do so unless it was guaranteed to be disseminated among the entirety of the rest of the galaxy.

As this was chronologically somewhere between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, doing so would be difficult. However, the individual they met with was able to orchestrate a meeting with multiple parties, the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance obviously primary among them. But who represented the rest of the galaxy? ...A Hutt.

Yeah, that can't have ended well.

Rating: 4/5. The Lucents represent a staple of science fiction, the advanced benevolent aliens who make people jump through hoops in return for some kind of reward. I find it a bit amazing that this is the first time I've noticed a group to be in that category (though the Star Wars galaxy really oughtn't have many of them, being among the most powerful and advanced civilizations in all of fiction). They're also likeable, despite their questionable canonicity.

644. Lucksprites. Lucksprites are among the many weird, supernatural entities that live on Endor. They have tentacles on their heads (despite being elfish creatures) that can be used to essentially "fire" good or bad luck at others.

They are also incredibly hideous.

Rating: 2/5 for the amusement factor.

645. Lugubraa. The Lugubraa are a race that's treated as a legally ownable animal until the age of six months or so, at which point they are rather dimwitted but capable of speech and the like. If a Lugubraa lives to fifty, it becomes a relative genius, and these individuals generally lead the rest of the species.

This does not go into the fact that the Lugubraa have huge lamprey-like mouths, four arms, two of which look disturbingly like... something other than arms, and are obsessed with fresh (i.e. just-killed) meat. These traits led to the Crokes "recruiting" them for their civil war with each other, and the fact that the Lugubraa breed quickly and asexually led to the Crokes being rendered nearly extinct by their own hungry "soldiers."

They're also blind and use echolocation and infrared senses to make their way around.

Rating: 4/5. They're both very disturbing and very interesting.

646. Lurmen, or Mygeetans. The Lurmen are basically lemurs. They apparently are shown to talk with Irish/Scottish accents.

Rating: 3/5. Scots-Irish lemurs? Yeah, sure.

647. Lurrians. The Lurrians look like Ewoks, but aren't. We know this because they're herbivorous, and we all know that Ewoks will eat anything that moves.

They're apparently reclusive, and they're very skilled geneticists/bioengineers, having created various species, and so their services are in high demand offworld even though they're not selling.

Thus, sometimes they get kidnapped and sold into slavery. Nice. (In the Han Solo adventures, Han was unwittingly duped into picking up a shipment of Lurrian slaves; he and they [and Chewbacca] successfully teamed up on the armed guards that boarded the Millennium Falcon to keep Han in line to get out of the mess.)

Rating: 4/5. That's a little high, sure, but I have a reason-it's uncommon to see an alien species who can be confused for another species that isn't the human species.

648. Lutrillians. The Lutrillians apparently are highly nomadic beings, and developed this way to avoid the fearsome predators that inhabit the equatorial tundra they call home on their homeworld. (Yes, equatorial tundra. Apparently, Lutrillia is quite cold and dry.) How fearsome are these predators? Well, apparently they're still a problem even in the present, when most Lutrillians live in mobile cities, and if a mobile city stalls, it will be in serious danger from attacks by these predators. (Incidentally, the predators are known by the rather diminutive names of "nippers" and "chompers.") The Lutrillians enjoyed success in business in the galaxy at large, and were thus lucky enough to have the money to build their mobile cities and keep them running most of the time, however.

Rating: 3/5. They're... kinda ugly.

649. Luyals. Sapient. A species.

Rating: 1/5.

650. Lyra. Named after a constellation.

Rating: 1/5. Huh, I accidentally typed "11/5" at first. That would have been awkward...

-Signing off.

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