Tusken Raiders: A nomadic and often violent species, the Sand People of the planet Tatooine are as fierce and discomforting as their harsh desert environment. For these Tusken Raiders, even their appearance - born of necessity - gives them a terrifying mien. Wrapped in gauzy robes and strips of cloth from head to foot, they top off their outfits with breathing masks and goggles to protect their eyes. Their frightening visages make their acts of banditry easier.
The Sand People are easily intoxicated by simple sugar water, and are most dangerous during their adolescent years, when they must survive rigorous rites of passage, such as hunting the deadly krayt dragons, to become adults. Because there is no written Tusken language, the storyteller is the most respected member of Tusken communities. It is considered blasphemy - and grounds for instant death - to speak a single word of the sacred stories incorrectly. Many Tusken Raider clans of twenty to thirty individuals return annually to their traditional encampments in the Needles, a section of the Jundland Waste, to wait out the dangerous sandstorm season.
The Sand People posses an almost symbolic relationship with their bantha mounts. A member who has lost his bantha is considered incomplete and an outcast among his people. Likewise, when a Raider dies, his mount engages in a frenzy that is usually suicidal, and the creature is turned loose in the desert to survive or die on its own. Tuskens maintain an uneasy and frequently shattered peace with the moisture farmers who also populate Tatooine. They attack full settlement from time to time, using their traditional weapon, the gaderffii (or gaffi) stick, a kind of double-edged ax. Targets of opportunity also include individuals or small parties roaming the desert, such as Jawa scavenging parties. Sand People subsist on difficult-to-digest fruit, the hubba gourd, and tightly gaurd their hidden desert oases, the main source of their water.
Sand People rarely distinguish betwwen their sexes, keeping record of male and female that are consulted only to arrange marriage. After bonding ceremonies in which the male and female mix their blood, as do their banthas, they adjourn to the privacy of their tent, and are allowed to unwrap themselves. This is when they see each other's faces for the first time. In any circumstances other than that, seeing another Raider's face is grounds for a duel to the death. |
