Krizlaws were native herd-beasts from the planet of Munlali Mafir. Their heads resembled that of a rancor and their skin was smooth and pink with small red eyes; their arms were small and tipped with three venomous claws, and their legs were large and used for pouncing. Thought to be no more intelligent than a nerf, they always hunted in packs of eleven, each individual linked together in a form of hive-mind. When one individual was wounded or killed, another would come and replace it, bringing the total back to eleven.
When the living planet of Zonama Sekot passed through their star system, the planet experienced a period of prolonged seismic and volcanic activity that decimated the population of Krizlaws and even destroyed the sentient Jostran civilization. As a result, the surviving Jostrans formed a symbiotic relationship with the Krizlaws, entering through the creatures' mouths and finding their way to the spine and the brain where they would take over the central nervous system. The resultant Krizlaw species now contained their animal hive-mind of eleven linked individuals but now also had eleven intelligent Jostran "rider's" joining the collective.