The war between the Gungans and the bursas was first mentioned in the Gungan DataBank entry in the 2001 LucasArts video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. The concept for the war was originated by Star Wars creator George Lucas, who described the Gungan Grand Army as being created to fight bear-like creatures. Author Daniel Wallace came across Lucas's concept and planned to expand upon it in The Essential Guide to Episode I, requesting artist Robin Pronovost to design a creature that became the bursas, although the guide was ultimately cancelled. In a blog post in which they shared concept art of a bursa drawn in 2000, Pronovost offered the unofficial explanation that the bursas were driven to extinction by the Gungans, but were preserved by a breeding program established by the Amarans.
The 2001 reference book The Essential Guide to Alien Species contradicted Galactic Battlegrounds by stating that the Gungan Grand Army was formed in a conflict with unknown invaders of Naboo in their early history, and 2006's The New Essential Guide to Alien Species stated that the conflict took place nearly 100 years before the Battle of Yavin. In another contradiction, the 2002 forty-seventh issue of The Official Star Wars Fact File magazine stated that the Gungan Grand Army was formed by united factions after the war between the Gungan tribes. This article uses sources that state that the war against the bursas caused the formation of the Gungan Grand Army, including Galactic Battlegrounds, 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, and 2009's The Essential Atlas.
Concept art of Gungans fighting a bursa by Robin Pronovost
The war between the Gungans and the bursas was first mentioned in the Gungan DataBank entry in the 2001 LucasArts video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. The concept for the war was originated by Star Wars creator George Lucas, who described the Gungan Grand Army as being created to fight bear-like creatures. Author Daniel Wallace came across Lucas's concept and planned to expand upon it in The Essential Guide to Episode I, requesting artist Robin Pronovost to design a creature that became the bursas, although the guide was ultimately cancelled. In a blog post in which they shared concept art of a bursa drawn in 2000, Pronovost offered the unofficial explanation that the bursas were driven to extinction by the Gungans, but were preserved by a breeding program established by the Amarans.
The 2001 reference book The Essential Guide to Alien Species contradicted Galactic Battlegrounds by stating that the Gungan Grand Army was formed in a conflict with unknown invaders of Naboo in their early history, and 2006's The New Essential Guide to Alien Species stated that the conflict took place nearly 100 years before the Battle of Yavin. In another contradiction, the 2002 forty-seventh issue of The Official Star Wars Fact File magazine stated that the Gungan Grand Army was formed by united factions after the war between the Gungan tribes. This article uses sources that state that the war against the bursas caused the formation of the Gungan Grand Army, including Galactic Battlegrounds, 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, and 2009's The Essential Atlas.
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. I
- The Essential Atlas
- The Essential Guide to Episode I