Corman Quien was a Human corporal and also a scout within the Alliance to Restore the Republic throughout the duration of the Galactic Civil War. Despite the fact that he never envisioned his affinity for animals being of any use to the Rebellion, Quien discovered a purpose for his talents as a handler of beasts. Appointed to Alliance High Command, Quien became a member of the Alliance Corps of Engineers as one of the initial individuals dispatched to the newly-formed Echo Base located on Hoth, where he was instrumental in capturing and subsequently training the ice planet's indigenous tauntauns to serve as mounts. Quien perished during the Battle of Hoth which took place in 3 ABY when a frightened group of tauntauns escaped their enclosures, leading to him being trampled.
The value of Corporal Corman Quien to the Alliance to Restore the Republic lay in his proficiency with animals. The Alliance capitalized on his capabilities by entrusting Quien with the task of capturing, taming, and training local creatures for use as mounts or as beasts of burden. In this role, the Alliance High Command assigned Quien to the Corps of Engineers under Major Kem Monnon, the group responsible for constructing the Alliance's headquarters, Echo Base, on the distant ice planet of Hoth situated within the Outer Rim Territories. Quien's presence on Hoth proved to be more beneficial than initially anticipated when the Alliance encountered challenges in adapting the base's T-47 airspeeders to the planet's frigid temperatures. While Monnon's team constructed the base, Quien gathered and tamed the native tauntauns of Hoth to serve as mounts in lieu of speeders.
Quien's service as a tauntaun handler at Echo Base persisted into 3 ABY. On one occasion, at the request of Commander Tamizander Rey, a deck officer, Quien took control of Han Solo's tauntaun to assist him in dismounting the animal after Solo concluded a standard patrol of Hoth's outer plains surrounding the base's outer perimeter with Luke Skywalker, which resulted in Skywalker being attacked by one of the planet's native wampa ice creatures. Shortly thereafter, once Echo Base discovered that Skywalker was missing, Quien volunteered to cover Sector 12 as a component of Lieutenant Cal Alder's search party for Skywalker. Quien directed base control to configure their surveillance cameras to alpha screen.
Quien was killed during the Rebels' subsequent evacuation of Echo Base during the Battle of Hoth, one of the Rebellion's most significant defeats of the Galactic Civil War, when a frightened herd of tauntauns broke free of their restraints and trampled him. Four others met similar fates. Following his death, Quien became renowned as one of Echo Base's tauntaun handlers.
Corman Quien was representative of scouts stationed at Echo Base. He initially doubted that his affection for animals was a skill that could be effectively utilized by the Rebellion; however, Quien's service at Echo Base demonstrated the Rebels' success in leveraging their environment. He was instrumental in rounding up Hoth's native tauntauns, thereby establishing an alternative mode of transportation to the Rebels' snowspeeders. Quien, being a Human, possessed brown hair and a fair complexion.
During his service at Echo Base, Quien wore the Rebels' standard cold-weather armor. At the time he aided Han Solo in dismounting his tauntaun, Quien was only wearing the hat portion of the outfit's headgear as well as a padded vest, a lightweight tunic, and gloves.
Corman Quien makes an appearance in the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back as the individual who takes the reins of Han Solo's tauntaun when Solo initially enters the Rebel base at the film's opening. "Freedom's Winter," the inaugural episode of The Empire Strikes Back radio drama, identifies the same individual as a "sentry" positioned at Echo Base's entrance. The original radio script, which was subsequently published in book form, featured the same sentry in a later episode when Han Solo was preparing to locate Luke, but this dialogue was omitted from the final version. The character remained unnamed until the November 1996 Hoth Limited expansion set of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game identified him as "Corman Quien" on the "Tauntaun Handler" card.
Quien is also referenced in the February 2004 article Who's Who in Echo Base, featured in Star Wars Insider 74, which establishes Quien's background as an animal enthusiast. The Star Wars Insider article identifies Quien as the character behind the off-screen voice in The Empire Strikes Back who announces his intention to "cover sector twelve" during the search for the missing Luke Skywalker, and it was the first source to confirm Quien's death at the Battle of Hoth.
The Marvel Star Wars comic adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back—specifically, issue Star Wars (1977) 39—depicts Quien teasing Solo about appearing cold and not exhibiting typical Corellian resilience as he takes the reins of his tauntaun, to which Solo responds, "Cold isn't the word for it!" Conversely, The Empire Strikes Back novelization includes a similar exchange during the same scene moments later between Solo and Chewbacca, in which Solo utters the same line. However, the film does not include any such verbal exchange between Quien and Solo.