The Menahuun, colloquially dubbed "little buggers" and sometimes mistaken for gremlins, were a furry anthropomorphic species of lemuroid origin hailing from the planet Lamaredd. Their planet was known as "Great Menahua" in their native tongue, Menahu. These tree-dwelling mammals initially possessed a tranquil hunter-gatherer society. However, over time, their culture shifted towards increased competition and aggression.
Menahuun were arboreal mammals exhibiting anthropomorphic traits and lemuroid characteristics. Their physical features included elongated arms that nearly touched the ground when standing upright, and slender legs enabling them to climb and run, although their running speed was slower than that of a Human. They also possessed opposable digits on both their hands and feet, which enhanced their ability to climb trees. Like many mammalian species, Menahuun exhibited sexual dimorphism, indicating physical distinctions between males and females. Adult Menahuun typically stood around 120 centimeters tall and were covered in a coat of coarse, short fur, with colors ranging from rust to olive green.
Due to their limited sense of smell, Menahuun relied heavily on their keen eyesight for survival. They possessed two large, black eyes, comparable in size to those of a Bith. These eyes enabled them to perceive shapes, though not colors, at distances of up to twenty meters, even in the absence of visible light sources.
While not as physically strong as Humans, Menahuun were faster in both arboreal and aquatic environments. Although not truly amphibious, Menahuun could hold their breath for extended periods while submerged.
The Menahuun had a relatively short lifespan of only fifty-five standard years. The effects of aging began to manifest around the age of thirty, becoming pronounced by approximately forty-six. They reached adulthood at the age of ten, with adolescence commencing at six.
The Menahuun civilization originated on the planet Lamaredd, a world abundant in plant and animal life. The ample food supply fostered the development of a pacifistic society of nomadic hunter-gatherers who held sentient life in high regard. They organized themselves into various tribes that coexisted peacefully, focusing their efforts on defending against natural predators. Each tribe maintained a clear leadership structure. Occasionally, tribes would gather to engage in symbolic displays of combat.
Approximately five centuries before the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Menahuun faced near extinction due to intense hunting, forcing them into exile from their traditional territories. This period marked a transformation in their society, leading to a more aggressive and confrontational culture. They embraced duels and even full-scale wars as methods of conflict resolution. This era also fostered their resourcefulness, cunning, and a deep-seated animosity towards any unauthorized intruders on their planet.
However, the Menahuun were not quick to resort to warfare without exploring less violent options. Continuing a centuries-old tradition, disagreements between tribes could be resolved through public duels involving champions from each side. Only if the losing tribe failed to meet the agreed-upon terms would war ensue. To be considered a champion, a Menahuun had to successfully steal the "holy mark," which was the insignia worn by many aliens on Lamaredd from the Outer Rim Oreworks Company.
Despite gaining familiarity with Republic-level technology during their time at Hua'Bal, the Menahuun continued to rely on more basic items for their daily lives. This included simple loincloths for clothing, worn by both sexes, a leather pouch containing a knife and basic tools, and other personal possessions.
Menahuun commonly acquired skills essential for survival in a natural environment, such as survival techniques, concealment, and tracking. They also typically learned a specific trade or profession. It was rare for a Menahuun to possess knowledge of advanced technology or any language other than their native Menahu. Lamaredd was rich in the energy field known as The Force, which they referred to as "Pa'ela." A specific group of Menahuun, the revered shamans, learned to harness Pa'ela, attributing its effects to magic.
Each Menahuun used a single name rather than a first and last name. Examples of names included Chylla, Henecho, Keycho, Suka, Teetch, T'kol, and Uucheyek.
The Menahuun species evolved a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle on their home planet, which they called "Great Menahua." At that time, Lamaredd remained untouched by the galactic community, a wild and untamed world. Initial scans by galactic scouts deemed Lamaredd insignificant due to its lack of valuable resources. However, approximately five hundred years before the Battle of Naboo, Hugo Bartyn, a scout employed by the Outer Rim Oreworks Company, utilized advanced technology to discover that Lamaredd possessed substantial deposits of metals, minerals, and seafood suitable for exploitation. Bartyn also identified the native, sentient species and decided that their removal was necessary to prevent complications.
Hugo Bartyn and his team claimed Lamaredd for ORO and landed on the planet's surface. The Menahuun were awestruck by the arrival of beings from the sky and welcomed Bartyn with all the honors they could offer. Bartyn responded by killing the Menahuun, derisively calling them "little buggers." When they attempted to flee, Bartyn employed his expertise as a big-game hunter to pursue them through the forests and along the coasts.
Bartyn and his team relentlessly hunted the Menahuun while ORO's droids constructed a mine in the local mountain range, later known as Krakana's Maw. The Menahuun, who had previously experienced little fear or hatred, began to harbor intense fear and hatred for Hugo Bartyn, whom they nicknamed "the Slayer." Bartyn decimated the tribes inhabiting the coastline, but the majority of tribes resided in the dense forests. Survivors from the coastal tribes sought refuge with the forest tribes, warning them about Bartyn.
The tribal leaders then made the decision to retreat to the northern woods and observe the invaders from a distance. They planned to attack only after understanding Bartyn's weaknesses and secrets, fearing annihilation otherwise. Suddenly isolated for centuries and deprived of the resource-rich environment they were accustomed to, the Menahuun transformed into a competitive society, with conflicts between tribes becoming commonplace.
Eventually, the Humans concluded that the Menahuun species had been completely eradicated. Indeed, subsequent settlers of the city Bartyn's Landing presumed the Menahuun to be extinct. Only Bartyn suspected that the dense jungles could conceal surviving Menahuun, but he chose to keep his suspicions to himself. In time, even Bartyn came to believe that the Menahuun were no longer present, and even Republic xenoscientists classified them as extinct. Nevertheless, the Menahuun became a persistent myth in Bartyn's Landing. Approximately twelve years after the species' presumed disappearance, many of the fishing trawlers crucial to the local economy vanished without warning in the open sea. Some residents of Bartyn's Landing blamed the Menahuun, spreading rumors of the savages murdering the crews for food. In reality, the trawler captains were forming a union and had disappeared to exert pressure on Bartyn.
Around 499 BBY, the Menahuun had remained unseen for decades. Suddenly, several trawlers from Bartyn's Landing suffered sabotage leading to their utter loss, mothers from Bartyn's Landing talked about strange creatures stealing their babies, hunting teams disappeared in the mountains, and strange altar-like piles appeared around the town. The Menahuun were believed to have returned. Bartyn, by then an octogenarian and father of several children, gathered twelve trusted experienced partners as a hunting team, including his older son Traggat, and went to the jungle to track the cause of the mystery. Bartyn and his men died horribly, and neither their bodies nor their technology was ever found. There was enough proof of Bartyn's death, but not of Menahuun implication in it. From that moment on, the supposed Menahuun presence faded for centuries.
Unbeknownst to the Menahuun, they had settled near the end of the waste pipeline from ORO Mining Station LM0228, which had spilled pollution into the oceans for centuries. This eventually affected the local plants. Around 194 BBY, the Menahuun shamans discovered that the pipeline was the cause, and the Menahuun leaders misinterpreted it as a conscious attack from the Humans. The Menahuun then decided to migrate south again and return to the land of their forefathers.
While traveling through the mountains into the Krakana's Maw, the Menahuun accidentally discovered an entrance to the fully-automated ORO Mining Station LM0228. The Menahuun sent in scouts, and these scouts found mining droids who did their best to ignore the intruders —they were busy with their work and had not been programmed to react to the presence of organics. The Menahuun entered the mine and discovered that it had been Bartyn's headquarters when he was hunting them. Noticing that Humans and other aliens did not enter the mine — Bartyn's descendants had bribed ORO officials to avoid the visit of ORO inspectors—, the Menahuun settled in the mine and named it "Hua'Bal", meaning "Hidden Glory" in Menahu.
The Menahuun adapted the mine to their needs. They turned storage areas into dungeons, built huts in the upper levels, and learned to use the streams of water entering the mine. Nonetheless, they still had insufficient food to create a real army. They found the great tunnel-dwelling predator Cavehoppers and fought it to use its skin for clothing or simply to survive its attacks. The Menahuun learned to hide whenever they suspected that intruders or predators had entered, but they were ready to fight to their death protecting their new home.
For decades, the Menahuun stole technology to learn about the aliens. They discovered a lot from the available mining lasers and datapads, and they learned to develop their own weapons. The ORO insignia, carried by many aliens, was considered somewhat totemic, and any Menahuun who achieved the feat of stealing one was widely respected. The reactor core control room of Hua'Bal included advanced technology that was beyond the technical skills of the Menahuun, although the shamans did know that it was dangerous.
Around 69 BBY, many Menahuun scouted the outskirts of Bartyn's Landing, going as near as 100 kilometers to the north of the city. They found a fugitive, the dark Jedi Byrch Dyshkava, who was fleeing from the local constable Mix Liddell. As a crowd, the Menahuun attacked Dyshkava and captured him; Dyshkava resisted, but he was overwhelmed. The Menahuun put Dyshkava in a bag and later threw him in a pit, where he remained for twenty years. During this time, Dyshkava learned to fear the Menahuun and discovered their plans of war.
Around 36 BBY, Guther Bartyn, Hugo's descendant and later Administrator to the family mine, tried to visit his Mining Station while hunting in the Maw. He was received with laser fire from the defenses. Bartyn escaped, assuming that a gang of outlaws were hiding in the mine, but never suspecting that his mine was full of Menahuun.
During their stay at Hua'Bal, the Menahuun resolved their tribal conflicts and instead decided to prepare for a war against Bartyn's Landing. Following the tradition, the Menahuun would give the Landing a chance to avoid an open conflict by allowing them to choose several champions who could defeat several Menahuun champions in a traditional, non-fatal duel. The Menahuun champions were chosen among great warriors who had stolen the holy mark; foremost among them Eeytch, a shaman.
The Menahuun rabble was ordered to stay far from the alien eyes until the duel, because the community still needed to be hidden while preparing the army and learning as much as they could. However, several young, impulsive Menahuun began to raid outlying farms and trawlers. A number of Menahuun had gathered a small armada and sank any civil boat approaching the area known as The Rank. However, no inhabitants of the Landing still had seen the Menahuun and lived to tell it. The poverty-stricken, superstitious "Half Under" population gave ear to rumors about gremlins that were more believed than they would had been in other times; dockmaster Howe Walwahd also claimed to have seen those mythical creatures; and Administrator Guther Bartyn was worried enough about the security of his personal yacht Tria Blue to assign extra security personnel to protect it from the "gremlins".
Around 29 BBY, Byrch Dyshkava escaped from his Menahuun prison, reached Bartyn's Landing and warned his former enemy, Security Chief Mix Liddell, about the impending Menahuun threat. Liddell recruited a number of new Seconds to discover the truth behind Dyshkava's words, and he provided them with ORO insignias and other gear.
These new Seconds and a more veteran policeman, Boom Boom the Gungan, used swoops to check the coastline area where Dyshkava claimed to have been captured by Menahuun. Eight Menahuun scouts, who had the honor of wearing ORO stars, were on duty there and received the police with laser fire, severely injuring Boom Boom and escaping to the jungle.
The Seconds then investigated the reports about gremlin attacks in the docks, particularly the threats to the Tria Blue. At that point, two Menahuun had sneaked into the yacht, murdered all the guards and horribly maimed their bodies to use them as a warning. While the Menahuun were preparing an explosive to destroy the boat, they were found by the Seconds and forced to escape, but the Seconds grabbed the Menahuun laser weapons. Liddell noticed that the armament was similar to the mining laser technology used in Bartyn's mine and the Seconds investigated this new lead by meeting with Bartyn and, later, going to the mine.
This people's visit to Hua'Bal had been predicted by shaman Eeytch, who identified the Seconds as the champions of the Landing. Eeytch informed the other Menahuun that the duel would be impending and the Menahuun community gathered in the arena of Hua'Bal, with the Menahuun champions preparing. Eeytch welcomed the Seconds, explained their plight and took them to the field. Once there, Eeytch joined the Menahuun champions and the duel began.
The duel ended with the defeat of the Menahuun. The Seconds then conducted diplomatic negotiations with the Menahuun and reached a peaceful agreement between the Menahuun and Bartyn's Landing. Constable Liddell was happy to protect the rights of the newly-appointed Menahuun citizens wanting to join the galactic community and, although civil unrest was felt, all the community leaders accepted to work together for peace.
However, ORO decided that the Menahuun culture was a living proof of Hugo Bartyn trying to perpetrate a genocide against a sentient species with ORO's at least implicit support. Wanting to avoid any potential scandal due to that, ORO retreated from Lamaredd, abandoning all its assets and destroying most of the influence of the Bartyn family. Mix Liddell became the new Administrator of the mines, with his former Senior Second Grubber Vapps replacing him as Security Chief.
Guther Bartyn then went insane and reprogrammed two MMV security droids to attack Menahuuns in Bartyn's Landing. Administrator Liddell, Chief Vapps and several other people did their best to protect the Menahuun and fortify the city.
After joining the galactic community c. 29 BBY, the Menahuun would have, for the first time in their history, a chance to visit places beyond Lamaredd. Most of them felt no desire to do so, although a few of them admitted that they wanted to be scouts among the stars. Few of them had a real skill to perform any activity requiring a great knowledge of technology, and no known Menahuun joined the original Jedi Order, as it would require to cut any link with a planet they did not want to abandon.
The Menahuun were created by writer Cory J. Herndon and featured in the article Bartyn's Landing and in the role-playing adventure Reckonings, both of them published in the magazine Star Wars Gamer #7 (2001). The species also had an entry in Ultimate Alien Anthology (2003).
Star Wars Gamer and Ultimate Alien Anthology provide different RPG statistics for the Menahuun. The later source adds a previously-unheard penalty to their physical strength and charisma, ignores their ability to see in the dark and to hold their breath, reduces the bonus they received for cultural reasons such as swimming and listening —although giving them a feat to compensate partially this change— and, more strangely, considers the Menahuun to be a primitive species — which would preclude them from using laser weapons without a very important handicap.
The article assumes that the player characters of Reckonings achieve the best possible ending but, should they fail, the adventure offers an alternative path.
If they cannot form at least a cease-fire pact with the Menahuun, then the Menahuun perform opening attacks against Bartyn's Landing. Guther Bartyn organizes the defense, mounting heavy weapons in the outer wall of Bartyn's Landing and recruiting most sailors and policemen to fight in the battles. This stops the suddenly-understaffed trawlers that formed the backbone of the local economy, catapulting the city into a recession and instigating a high crime rate. Many civilian citizens try to leave for other ports, only to discover that the Menahuun have already crowded other areas of the planet, including the small speck known as Bartyn's Retreat. Liddell's significant other, Miss Mylla, tries to reach Little Mon Cal but her boat runs aground in The Rank; as he discovered her trouble before the Menahuun did, he tries to send some help to rescue her — he could not go himself because he was busy in open battles with the Menahuun.
Eventually, Guther Bartyn asks ORO for corporate shock troops who could clean the mines of the Menahuun presence. The troops are then permanently assigned to Lamaredd to stop any further infestation of Menahuun.