Kintan crusher

A species related to the semi-sentient Kintan striders, Kintan crushers were more intelligent than their cousins. They were powerfully-built creatures who stood on two stocky legs that emerged from prominent buttocks and terminated in two-toed feet. Kintan crushers sported heavily-muscled arms, and the four clawed digits of their hands were capable of fine manipulation and of closing into immense fists. Members of the species had a hunched posture with the head jutting from the domed midsection at a right angle to the torso. Kintan crushers had no appreciable neck, and their facial features were minimal: two small eyes and a large, horizontal slit for a mouth. Two sharp teeth jutted upward from the center of the lower jaw. A thick tongue lolled within the maw, ranging in color from pale yellow to pale gray. Crushers vocalized with a low, basso roar.

Kintan crusher hides came in a variety of brown and gray shades. Some representatives of the species sported dark stripes that ran vertically along the back and the arms, while others had uniformly-pigmented skin. The eyes featured a uniform pigmentation; various crushers sported eyes of brown, yellow, gray, and blue.

Members of the species varied drastically in size. A smaller Kintan crusher stood slightly taller than an adult Human, while larger specimens could grow so large that the same Human only came up to the crusher's knee. Also varying with overall size were rows of spikes that grew along the spine, the upper arms, and the lower legs. In immense crushers, these protruded prominently from the flesh, while in smaller members of the species, the spikes were only barely visible. Crushers often lumbered about on their hind limbs, but, when hurried, they used a quadrupedal ambulation, alternating their weight between their hands and feet as they ran forward. The largest specimens were capable of causing minor groundquakes with their movements.

Although they were more intelligent than the semi-sentient Kintan striders, Kintan crushers were nevertheless ferocious and animalistic creatures. In their natural state, they lived in the wilds of the planet Kintan, where they foraged for food, picking items up from the ground and eating them, whether solitary or in small groups. However, by the time of the Cold War, most crushers worked for various representatives of the Hutt Cartel. Their relatively high intelligence enabled them to follow fairly involved commands, but it also made them smart enough to expect some sort of remuneration for doing their masters' bidding. Rumors abounded as to how the Hutts and their minions paid their crusher forces, with guesses ranging from the ridiculous to the shocking. Crushers in the employ of the Hutts were sometimes accompanied by handlers; such crushers wore straps around the neck, upper arms, shoulders, wrist, and waist; their handlers could attach chains or ropes to these straps to subdue the crusher if need be.

The species was also known as "Kintan enforcers," and several other appellations referred to at least certain segments of the population. Some of these names included Kintan beast slaves, Kintan behemoths, Kintan maulers, Kintan rock throwers, Kintan warhounds, Kintan ancients, and Kintan devourers.

Crushers were fierce opponents in battle. Their primary attack was to pound an enemy with their fists, but other tactics included slapping and stomping the foe, and either stamping or pounding the ground to force an opponent to fly backward. Kintan crushers also used their powerful upper body strength to lift large rocks and throw them overhead at an enemy. Another maneuver was to strike an enemy with the belly and feet to knock the foe backward. Crushers of adequate size were capable of creating minor groundquakes to damage nearby foes. They defended themselves by protecting vital areas with their meaty upper limbs. At least some crushers had the tendency to fly into a battle frenzy after they had sustained enough injury; in such a state, the crusher moved faster and hit harder.

The Kintan crushers were named for the planet on which they evolved, Kintan, which was a world that had been bathed in intense radiation when its star, M'dweshuu, went nova in the world's ancient past. The radiation wiped out most life on the planet; that which survived mutated into monstrous nightmares. Among the surviving species were both the Kintan crushers and a cousin species, the Kintan striders. The planet was also home to the sentient Nikto, who established themselves as the dominant form of life there by nearly wiping out all other living creatures on the planet. Around 25,100 BBY, Kintan became a contested target in a war between the forces of the Human warlord Xim the Despot and the Hutts, who both wanted control of Kintan's region of space, the Si'Klaata Cluster. The Hutts convinced the Nikto to swear fealty to them, and the Hutts and their servants bested Xim and his forces at the Third Battle of Vontor. Once Xim was defeated, the Hutts added the planet of Kintan to their empire, which eventually came to be known as Hutt Space. Several centuries before the Cold War, the Hutts learned to domesticate the Kintan crushers and use them in their criminal endeavors.

With more in Hutt employ than wild on their home planet by the Cold War, Kintan crushers lived throughout Hutt Space. The Hutts found them to be among their most loyal and reliable enforcers, and they often used them as muscle to fight their enemies. For instance, Sludge Kintan was a crusher who roamed the grounds outside Voontara Fa'athra's palace in the Eastern Grime region of the planet Nal Hutta. An individual allied with the Sith Empire killed Sludge Kintan. The Evocii rebel Grov the Destroyer enslaved a number of local wildlife that he set upon his enemies, including a Kintan crusher that had shock devices implanted in its spine and arms.

By the time hostilities resumed between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, Karagga the Hutt, leader of the Hutt Cartel, had several Kintan crushers on hand to protect the grounds of his palace on Hutta. The crushers and their handlers roamed a yard near the runoff of the palace moat. The largest and fiercest crusher on Karagga's palace grounds was the immense Foreman Crusher, who guarded the entrance to Karagga's droid factory just beyond the moat area. A group of Twi'lek infiltrators handled the massive beast and kept him chained down unless needed. When a large group of hostile invaders penetrated the grounds of Karagga's palace, they overcame the Kintan crusher forces guarding the moat, prompting Karagga's handlers to release Foreman Crusher. The interlopers slew the beast in the ensuing battle, permitting them access to the depths of Karagga's greater palace.

Later in the conflict, Kintan crushers helped guard Drilling Platform Fwanna on the Cartel mining mesa of the planet Makeb. The facility was under the control of Szajin, the Archon of the Hutt Cartel during its invasion of the planet, and the crushers were under the supervision of Whiphid beast handlers.

Other crushers lived well beyond the bounds of Hutt Space. For instance, at the end of the Cold War, several crushers escaped captivity in the prisons of the planet Belsavis and took to roaming the Ancient Rakatan Keep, the Caves of the Primeval Wardens, and the Cells of the Lords of the Infinite, all areas of the Tomb, an ancient prison complex used by the Rakata species and their Infinite Empire to hold dangerous beings in stasis some 20,000 years before the Cold War. During the same period, the enormous Kintan crusher known as Gargath patrolled a snowy region known as Gargath's Watch, part of the Clabburn Tundra on the ice planet Hoth. A group of offworlders confronted Gargath before the war's end, defeated the crusher in battle, and killed the beast.

The Kintan crushers were created as enemy characters for the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG, released by BioWare in December 2011. Artist Zach Hall designed the species, which was labeled "Kintan" during development. The species name "Kintan crusher" is given in an entry for the game's built-in encyclopedia, the Codex, after the player defeats a "released Kintan ancient" enemy character on Belsavis.

Several non-player characters in the game use the same general appearance and animations as the released Kintan ancient, although none explicitly names a species. Instead, most of these enemy characters use the label "Kintan" as if it were a species name rather than a planetary designation. These include Sludge Kintan on the planet Hutta; the Kintan devourers on Belsavis; and the Kintan behemoths, Kintan maulers, Kintan rock throwers, and Kintan warhounds found in the area of Karagga's palace in the multi-player operation "Hutt Hospitality." Finally, two of the characters are not identified by species at all: Foreman Crusher in the same operation—nicknamed "the Slavedriver"—and Gargath, a world boss on Hoth—called a "Snow Giant" in game text. Both of these latter two characters grant a Codex entry upon being defeated, but neither explicitly names the species. The only difference among all of these characters is in overall size and the length of their spikes, so this article treats them as members of the same species, as detailed in the "Kintan Crusher" Codex entry granted upon defeat of a released Kintan ancient.

In Star Wars: The Old Republic, the player may gain the Codex entry "Primeval Beasts" in the Tomb area of Belsavis, an area replete with "released Kintan devourer" and "released Kintan ancient" enemy types. The Codex mentions that many of the creatures held in the ancient prisons of Belsavis were deadlier than their counterparts on other worlds, possibly due to genetic tampering. Some of these creatures were kept in stasis since the days when the Rakata controlled the planet, others were allowed to breed for generations in sequestered colonies, while others were kept out of stasis yet alive, with no need for nourishment, from that same era. The entry does not specify into which of these categories the Kintan crushers on Belsavis fall, or whether they are more recent arrivals.

Completing the full storyline of The Old Republic only necessitates getting past—but not necessarily defeating—Karagga the Hutt's Kintan forces, except for Foreman Crusher, who must be killed. The operation is available to both the Sith Empire and Republic factions in the game, with little impact on the plot depending on the player characters' allegiance. The other unique Kintan crushers in The Old Republic are completely optional encounters, but this article assumes all were defeated as part of full game completion.

• The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Old Republic
• Star Wars: The Old Republic Explorer's Guide