Hem Dazon, once known as Kal Nkai, was an Arcona male with a severe salt dependency. His addiction manifested in [yellow](/article/color/legends] eyes, a perpetually foul mood, and shaky hands. He frequented Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina on Tatooine, squandering all his credits on salt and juri juice. He was in the cantina when Luke Skywalker and Han Solo first crossed paths, sharing a table with Bom Vimdin, Pons Limbic, Arleil Schous, and Braconnor Bakiska.
Born on the [Inner Rim](/article/inner_rim-legends] desert planet of Cona in 16 BBY, Kal Nkai spent his early years on his family's homestead. They sustained themselves by hunting the underground gastric pods that Cona's plant life used to create water. Their home was situated within twenty kilometers of a [Grand Nest], near a family nest. A protracted and brutal war erupted between Kal Nkai's Grand Nest and a neighboring one during his childhood, all over the precious resource of water. Kal Nkai's father, Kal Mpon, was a firm believer that fighting was pointless and diverted the Arcona from their true struggle against dehydration.
As the war intensified their hive's thirst and made hunting for water pods more dangerous, Kal Mpon decided they needed to leave their homestead and find more peaceful lands. To escape their homeland, Kal Nkai's family had to traverse a dense jungle wilderness. Being just a child, Kal Nkai couldn't identify safe water sources, lacking the knowledge to distinguish between harmless and dangerous plant life. As the family's leader, Kal Mpon took on the responsibility of finding water and testing plants for defenses. Despite his experience, Kal Mpon was unprepared for the novel life forms he encountered in the wilderness. When he attempted to extract water from a seemingly harmless plant, he triggered a defense mechanism that released an odorless paralyzing gas. A week later, Kal Nkai discovered his father's body beside the plant.
Now without water or the knowledge to safely acquire it, Kal and his mother grew desperate. Hearing of off-worlder prospecting settlements on Cona, they sought out the nearest one, offering their labor in exchange for water. The prospectors hired Kal as a full-time package runner. Kal quickly realized that the packages he was delivering were filled with salt, a substance illegal on Cona that caused addictive, hallucinogenic effects in Arconas. Despite knowing the severe legal consequences of smuggling salt, Kal felt obligated to support his mother and pretended ignorance. Over time, the salt residue on the packages permeated his skin, weakening his resistance to trying it. Eventually, Kal succumbed and became addicted, consuming more and more due to his proximity to the source. He denied his addiction, believing he was fine as long as his salt use didn't affect his work or income.
The prospectors, noticing Kal's addiction, taunted him with tales of their homeworld, covered in oceans of salt and water, the two most valuable resources on Cona. Kal Nkai became obsessed with leaving Cona. When the prospectors prepared to return to their world with their ore to replenish their water supply, Kal fabricated a brief explanation to his mother about the benefits of his departure and bid her farewell. He then joined the prospectors on their journey across the galaxy. The trip included numerous trade stops and layovers, one of which was the Mos Eisley Spaceport on Tatooine. It was during this stop that Kal learned of his mother's death. Overwhelmed by grief and helplessness, he fled the ship and sought solace in the cantina, where he mourned for nearly four days straight. The ship's crew attempted to persuade him to return so they could continue their journey, but Kal refused, unwilling to move on or return to Cona.
The prospectors departed without Kal, leaving him stranded with only two weeks of provisions. When his supplies ran out, he was forced to take up moisture farming. Kal was naturally adept at this trade, as his heat sensors and multi-band vision allowed him to locate subsurface water pockets more easily than other farmers who relied on probing and surveying. He could have become wealthy as a moisture farmer, but Kal only sought survival. He used his earnings from moisture farming and desert scout work to cover his basic needs, spending the little he had left on molded salt licks and juri juice from the cantina. Sometime before or during his arrival on Tatooine, Kal Nkai adopted the name Hem Dazon. His golden eyes, a result of his salt addiction, earned him the nickname "Goldeye" among the cantina regulars. Hem Dazon spent most of his time sharing his misery with the other cantina patrons, day and night. When Luke Skywalker and Ben Kenobi entered Chalmun's Cantina shortly before the Battle of Yavin, a 16-year-old Hem Dazon was sitting with Bom Vimdin, Pons Limbic, Arleil Schous, and Braconnor Bakiska.
Hem Dazon was a brown-skinned Arcona, standing 1.65 meters tall and weighing 72 kilograms.
The role of Hem Dazon in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope was played by Laine Liska, an uncredited makeup artist. The Arcona featured in The Star Wars Holiday Special was not immediately identified as Dazon, until the Star Wars Blog article, The Star Wars Holiday Special Cantina: Who's Who, confirmed his presence in the special.
In 1994, a screen saver from Star Wars Screen Entertainment identified the character as "Kal Nkai", and provided extensive details about his history. While later sources changed the names of other characters in Screen Entertainment to aliases, no such change has been made for Dazon. Although biographical details of some characters in the screen saver were later contradicted, only Dazon's name was altered.
In a poll in Star Wars Insider 48 asking fans which of about two dozen obscure Cantina and Jabba's Palace characters they wanted to see as an action figure, this character received the most votes. According to Star Wars Insider 50, Hem Dazon surpassed Tessek with 224 votes to 205. Both characters were eventually made into action figures by Hasbro: Tessek in the Power of the Jedi collection in 2001, and Dazon in The Saga Collection in 2006.