The Karrans were large and lumbering omnivores, living off of a diet of vegetables and insects. Their bodies were roughly cone-shaped, starting with a narrow snout and widening down to large thick legs and hindquarters. They had four-fingered hands with long claws and no thumbs, which limited their manual dexterity. It was not uncommon for Karrans to use their sharp foreclaws as weapons to defend themselves. They had the capacity to speak Galactic Basic Standard, which was taught to them by settlers centuries in the past, although it was noted they pronounced it with an oddly accented dialect.
A Karran
The Karrans had an almost hive-mind mentality, and individuality could quickly be suppressed in deference to the community will. As of the Galactic Civil War, the Karrans were still considered to be in their "stone age," crafting wooden tools and clay pottery using the limited resources available to them. They also constructed crude clay huts, with Karran villages being situated in a circular formation, while the center of these villages were reserved for the common area and the home of the tribe's chief, referred to as the "headman's hut." These structures were made using sun-dried bricks and shredded blades of grass, making them the same colors as the surrounding plains and allowing them to camouflage their villages in plain sight.
Surrounding their villages were dense grasses, beaten paths, and farmlands used to cultivate a crop known as tuber, which formed the basis of their diet. While Karrans sometimes wove grass fibers into coarse cloth, Karrans wore no clothing, though they decorated their fur with white stripes of clay for festivals and other special occasions. In the evenings, Karran juveniles used village common areas to play soli, a catch-and-toss game involving three brightly colored balls of differing sizes.
Karrans did not fear death. Karran warriors were known to fight until dead, believing they were not fighting for themselves, but instead they were fighting for their village and the future of their collective species. They considered individual Karran deaths to be of no consequence, and it was not uncommon for a Karran to sacrifice themselves if the sacrifice represented a potential for the group to survive. It was also said that Karrans knew almost nothing about technology and had a difficult time grasping new concepts.
- Alien Encounters