Gados

The Gados were tall, slender sentients distinguished by their shaggy fur covering their thin bodies. While generally humanoid in form, a Gados's arms were proportionally longer than their legs. Even more elongated was their slender neck, which gave the typical Gados a height advantage over an average Human. Atop this neck sat a small, round head that curved slightly forward. The Gados face was simple in design, featuring only two large, bulbous eyes, which could be either black or red in color, and a pair of white buck teeth that protruded from behind a cleft lip. As a Gados aged, their skin would turn yellow, but this was usually concealed by their coat of white or light brown fur.

While not particularly strong or robust, Gados possessed incredible agility and flexibility. The skeleton of a Gados consisted of small bone fragments held together by muscles and ligaments. This unique structure allowed their muscles to generate powerful bursts of energy, enabling them to perform acrobatic feats and leap to impressive heights. Such gymnastic displays did not easily exhaust the Gados; they could leap, jump, flip, and tumble for extended periods, appearing almost like dancers to onlookers. Even elderly Gados retained the ability to bounce and somersault with relative ease.

Similar to their external form, the vital organs of the species were thin and elongated. Instead of being concentrated in one area, each organ stretched like a ribbon from the Gados's head to their feet. This arrangement made the Gados particularly vulnerable to injury, as sensitive tissue was present throughout their bodies. Consequently, amputations and severed limbs were typically critical blows in most cases.

The Gados were known as amiable and tolerant beings, capable of overlooking habits, quirks, and character flaws that others might find irritating or offensive. They were exceptionally friendly, greeting strangers with openness and warmth. This combination of welcoming nature and tolerant attitude often led them to disregard criminal activities. Despite their friendliness, their ability to bounce and leap allowed a threatened Gados to move quickly and disorient an attacker.

The Gados were also recognized for their remarkable cultural adaptability. Although a distinct Gados society once thrived on their homeworld, complete with its own art, cuisine, and technology, millennia of interaction with other species gradually erased most traces of it. For instance, the Gados once spoke their own language, also known as Gados, but over thousands of years, most Gados adopted Basic as their primary language. As time progressed, Gados began to adopt the clothing styles of other species, utilize galactic-standard technology, and embrace customs such as smoking hookah pipes, much like other species. This widespread adoption of galactic culture led many Gados to lament the loss of their indigenous way of life.

Like all citizens of Abregado-rae, Gados were organized into clans. They resided in cities crisscrossed by canals, navigating them using watercraft known as Gados Floatboats. In these urban environments, Gados coexisted with cosmopolitan populations representing numerous species and, after the fall of the Galactic Empire, were governed by a multi-species group called the Tundei. Despite the city's diverse makeup, Gados were entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the planet's lone spaceport.

The Gados evolved on Abregado-rae, a world characterized by rolling hills and limited biodiversity, which also served as the home of the Moocher species. Visitors from another planet first arrived on the world sometime between 15,000 and 10,000 BBY, but the species was left to develop independently for thousands of years, during which they established a unique culture, society, and technology.

By 3000 BBY, Abregado-rae had become the most Coreward stop along the Rimma Trade Route, yet the planet and its inhabitants were largely ignored by the galactic community. Smugglers, pirates, and other scoundrels, however, capitalized on the Gados' tolerant nature and began using the planet as an alternative starting point for runs along the Rimma, thereby avoiding the stricter law enforcement of the Tapani sector. With the sustained presence of offworlders on Abregado-rae, the Gados adopted galactic-standard technology and constructed a spaceport. Over time, the Gados abandoned most aspects of their indigenous culture, and a tentative multi-species government was established on the world. Even their spaceport lost its native name, eventually becoming known simply as "Abregado-rae spaceport." Abregado-rae gained galactic notoriety as a shadowport, particularly as a hub for spice smuggling. Meanwhile, Gados colonists established settlements on other planets within the star system. In 22 BBY, the species' home system was the site of a battle during the Clone Wars.

Following the collapse of the Galactic Empire in 4 ABY, the Gados homeworld was claimed as part of Zero Command under the leadership of Admiral Blitzer Harrsk. However, by 6 ABY, the world had been liberated from Harrsk's control and had joined the New Republic by 7 ABY. At this time, the world had a population of approximately forty million, with Gados making up sixty percent of the total.

By this point, Abregado-rae had come under the rule of the Tundei, a group that had overthrown the previous, largely hands-off government in a coup. The Tundei outlawed piracy and smuggling and employed police to patrol the streets and apprehend lawbreakers. The new rulers sought to replace the criminal activities that had previously sustained the economy with industry and manufacturing. They also ordered the refurbishment of the spaceport as a gesture to the commerce they hoped to attract. Despite these changes, the Tundei curtailed the freedoms that the Gados had enjoyed in previous years. Crime was prosecuted by the Tundei Tribunal, headed by a Herglic named Shelov, with punishments ranging from torture to amputation or execution, all of which were essentially the same to the Gados due to their unique internal organ structure. Some Gados actively opposed the Tundei; a group of Gados colonists from other planets in the system even offered a bounty on Shelov's head. Nevertheless, some Gados supported the Tundei; an older Gados named Trarr, for example, manufactured transparisteel but secretly spied for the government. In 9 ABY, when a group of spacers agreed to send a shipment of surplus war rations to a group of peaceful dissidents in the hills outside the city, Trarr reported them to the authorities.

Ultimately, the Tundei regime failed to attract the new investment they sought. Nevertheless, the world remained important to the New Republic for its manufacturing capabilities. The New Republic liaisons Han Solo and Lando Calrissian visited the world in 9 ABY under the guise of investigating this manufacturing, although their true mission was to establish contact with Fynn Torve, a representative of the smuggler Talon Karrde. The pair located Torve in a casino, playing sabacc at a table with a Gados and other beings. Solo joined the game, but his stalling tactics irritated the Gados gambler.

Following the Thrawn campaign of 9 ABY, the New Republic pressured the Tundei to reform their laws, but the regime refused. Years later, the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the galaxy resulted in a flood of refugees to Abregado-rae. The Tundei felt their control over the world slipping, and the planet seemed on the verge of another government overthrow. The Yuuzhan Vong eventually captured the world. By 137 ABY, Abregado-rae fell within territory claimed by the Sith Lord Darth Krayt as part of his Galactic Empire.

While Gados were distributed across the various habitable planets of the Abregado system, relatively few members of the species ventured to other parts of the galaxy. A notable exception was the Leaping Tee family, a group of traveling Gados performers who toured the galaxy, presenting acrobatics and tumbling shows as part of the Alsakan Circo-Menagerie. At the height of their popularity, the Leaping Tee family was extremely well-regarded, and for many members of the galactic community, they represented the face of the Gados species.

The Gados are mentioned in Timothy Zahn's novel Heir to the Empire (1991), though the book does not provide any details about their appearance or culture. The novel uses both "Gado" and "Gados," leaving the singular form of the species' name ambiguous. In the comic book adaptation of a scene from Heir to the Empire (1996) where Han Solo engages in a sabacc game with a group of gamblers on Abregado-rae, a furred alien is depicted as one of the players, as drawn by Olivier Vatine and Fred Blanchard. The species' description in The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons (1998), written by Daniel Wallace, is based on Vatine and Blanchard's depiction of the alien.

The book Coruscant and the Core Worlds (2003) for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game by Wizards of the Coast expands upon the species' history and biology. It also provides statistical information for Gados characters. In the game, the species is represented as highly agile but lacking in toughness or perceptiveness. Average members of the species possess some sort of professional skill, can leap long distances, and are capable of tumbling like a gymnast.