Sanvals were reptilian dragons and each had a set of four large wings, muscular shoulders, long muscled tails, and long claws. They could grow at least 20 meters long and had a wingspan as broad as their bodies were long. Their faces featured a long, forked tongue, and they smelled of soil and swamps. They moved through the air as if it was water and they could make soft hooting noises, thunderous growls, and loud roars. They were rarely seen away from their home environment.
A pair of sanval adolescents, and their mother were held in the Lonisa City Zoo on Valo in 231 BBY.
During the Nihil's attack on the city, the zoo animals escaped. Among these were the sanval, the two adolescents initially beginning to circle Jedi Master Elzar Mann and blade-for-hire Ty Yorrick with the intention of diving down and picking off survivors. However, the pair of sanvals were instead commandeered through use of the Force by the pair before they could attack and were used to help defeat surrounding Nihil.
During the conflict, Yorrick briefly took her sanval out of Mann's line of sight, using both it and its mother to help Zeen Mrala find Jedi Padawans Ram Jomaram and Lula Talisola. The mother was then taken by the young Force-sensitives to Crashpoint Tower. Padawan Talisola took to riding the sanval alone as her friends jumped down to free the Tower from an infestation of Drengir. Talisola did not know what Yorrick had told the sanval, but sensed that the reptile hungered for chaos, destruction, and explosions. She calmed her, and helped the pair of them avoid a trap. The giant reptile then assisted in destroying numerous Nihil vessels. Elzar Mann and Ty Yorrick, meanwhile, continued to use their sanvals to do considerable damage to the Nihil forces, before Mann lept off his mount to engage in the fight on the ground. This left Yorrick alone to control both adolescents. Once the crisis had passed, all three reptiles were kept together in a temporary enclosure.
Sanvals first appeared simultaneously in The High Republic: Race to Crashpoint Tower, a novel by Daniel José Older, and The High Republic: The Rising Storm, a novel by Cavan Scott, both of which were released on June 29, 2021.
- Star Wars: The High Republic: Chronicles of the Jedi
- Star Wars: Timelines