Gorax


Biology and appearance


Ewok watchers confronting a Gorax

Ewok watchers confronting a Gorax

The Gorax were humanoids of gigantic proportions. One specimen was over 8.6 meters tall. A Gorax's ocher skin was covered in thick, matted dark fur, except on the face, hands and feet. Its head featured two forward-facing eyes with bushy brows, a mouth full of sharp fangs, and slit nostrils. Its limbs terminated in four fingers, including an opposable thumb. All of these digits ended in sharp nails. In his hand-drawn map of Endor, however, the Ithorian artist Gammit Chond depicted a Gorax with three-fingered hands, and feet with two large toes. Their large, pointed ears offered them highly sensitive hearing.

Gorax had immense strength; they could uproot a large tree effortlessly with both hands.

Behavior and intelligence


Gorax lived in mountainous areas and rarely showed themselves. Although notoriously aggressive, cruel, and rather stupid, they displayed a capacity to use objects as crude tools—for example, using an uprooted tree as a blunt weapon. Moreover, some wore crude pieces of clothing, like a sash made of furs and skulls, or a belted loincloth.

History


A Gorax lurks behind Paploo.

A Gorax lurks behind Paploo.

The Gorax dwelled on Endor, a forested moon of the Outer Rim Territories that orbited a planet of the same name. A crash millennia ago was thought to have brought them and Phlogs to the moon. Occasionally, they emerged from their habitat to attack the villages of the sentient Ewoks, who also lived on Endor. The Ewoks of Bright Tree Village posted watchers in the forest canopy above their homes to look out for such marauding Gorax. In fact, Gorax raids were one of the reasons the Ewoks built their villages high in the trees, and why they created a variety of traps, catapults and other large weapons.

When Chief Buzza led Bright Tree Village, a male Gorax lived near Mount Krana. Makrit, the village's shaman at the time, had come to worship the giant, whom he called "Great Devourer." Makrit intended to sacrifice kidnapped woklings in the Gorax's honor, but ended up being eaten instead.

In 4 ABY, the Gorax traps the Bright Tree Ewoks set up as a defense were re-purposed for taking out the All Terrain Scout Transport units deployed by the Galactic Empire during the Battle of Endor. Shortly after the battle, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa helped the Ewoks Kneesaa and Wicket stop a rampaging Gorax by resetting those traps.

Behind the scenes


The Gorax as it appeared in Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure

The Gorax as it appeared in Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure

Gorax were originally created for the Star Wars Legends television film Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure, which was released in 1984 and included a member of the species as a major villain. The species was confirmed to be canon in the reference book Ultimate Star Wars, which was released in 2015.

In "Survivors on Endor," a walker assault map included in a DLC of the video game Star Wars Battlefront, the players enter a cavern containing giant spiders and what appears to be the lair of an immense creature, complete with an empty cage hanging from the ceiling. This evokes the Gorax lair in Caravan of Courage. A similar cave system can be found in the map for the mode "Ewok Hunt" in Star Wars Battlefront II.

Non-canon appearances


  • LEGO Star Wars Battles

Sources


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