The Trandoshans, alternatively known as T'doshok, were towering, two-legged reptilian sentient humanoids originating from the planet of Trandosha, and they were celebrated for their prowess as hunters. The thrill of the hunt was something that Trandoshans greatly enjoyed, and they were known to undertake a hunting-related rite of passage. Their regenerative abilities, which allowed them to regrow limbs and heal effectively, were also well-known. A Trandoshan hunter named Garnac managed a game preserve located on the moon Wasskah. He also oversaw his son's rite of passage, which tragically failed and involved hunting a Jedi Padawan. Bossk, a Trandoshan, was among the most dreaded bounty hunters throughout the galaxy, accepting contracts from various groups, including the Galactic Empire. Other Trandoshans of note include Jedi Master Sskeer, as well as Ciddarin Scaleback, who was an information broker and owned a cantina.
Sentient humanoids with smooth, scaly hides, the Trandoshans exhibited a range of heights and builds. Some were tall and lean, while others were shorter and stockier. Possessing considerable strength, Trandoshans had lengthy, slender arms terminating in either three robust digits or four delicate digits, one of which was a thumb. Their eyes were positioned back on a sharp skull, and their jaws were lined with pointed teeth. Certain Trandoshans even sported a feathery crest atop their heads. They were hatched from eggs, and those who hatched from the same clutch referred to one another as clutchmates.
Although a Trandoshan's brain was inherently driven by rage, fury, and aggression, they were capable of overcoming these impulses. However, the rare Magrak Syndrome could gradually reassert these tendencies. Trandoshans often went barefoot, their feet each having three digits. Their skin color varied significantly, with individuals displaying green, red, orange, brown, or yellow hues. For instance, a Trandoshan named Smug had brownish-orange skin marked with red facial stripes. They possessed the ability to regenerate severed limbs. Trandoshans utilized their keen claws to ascend towering trees within the forests or jungles that comprised their natural habitat.
The planet Trandosha, situated in the Kashyyyk system within the Mid Rim Territories' Mytaranor sector, served as the Trandoshans' point of origin. They were avid hunting enthusiasts, pursuing creatures such as frist wolves and even other sentient beings. Their deity was a goddess known as the Scorekeeper. The Trandoshans also gained dominion over Wasskah, a moon orbiting their homeworld. Sharing their star system with Kashyyyk, the Wookiees' planet of origin, the Trandoshans engaged in a protracted, interspecies conflict marked by hunting and combat.
By the time of the Clone Wars, the hunter Garnac oversaw the island hunting preserve known as Island Four on Wasskah. He operated a hunting guild from a floating fortress suspended above the island. Garnac's scouts journeyed to various planets to abduct sentient beings, transporting them to Wasskah and depositing them on Island Four, where they were hunted for sport. During the Clone Wars, at least three Jedi younglings were captured and brought to Wasskah. The trio of younglings managed to evade the Trandoshans for an extended period, as the Trandoshans continued to deliver other prey to the island. Eventually, Lo-Taren, a Trandoshan, captured the Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano on Felucia and transported her to Island Four alongside other prisoners. After arriving on the island, Tano escaped and encountered the other younglings.
Dar, Garnac's son, later attempted to kill Tano as part of a crucial rite of passage, but the Jedi killed him instead. Garnac pursued Tano, killing the youngling Kalifa. Subsequently, Trandoshan scouts abducted the Wookiee Chewbacca, but the Trandoshan transport ship sustained damage and crashed on the hunting island before Chewbacca could be successfully delivered. Tano killed the two-member crew and fled the wreckage with Chewbacca. Utilizing salvaged wreckage, the Wookiee constructed a communications device and contacted Tarfful, a Wookiee General. Tano, the remaining younglings, and the Wookiee forces engaged Garnac's guild at their fortress, eliminating all the Trandoshan hunters. Garnac was the sole survivor of the confrontation and later served the gangster Grini Millegi on Serolonis.
Concurrently, Bossk, a bounty hunter, undertook numerous assignments and eventually served as a bodyguard for the aspiring bounty hunter Boba Fett. Bossk eventually became recognized as one of the galaxy's most feared bounty hunters. On one occasion, Bossk traveled to Lothal to collect a bounty on the Dug criminal Gronson Takkaro. This led him to encounter Ezra Bridger, a young Force-sensitive human, and to clash with Jenkes, a corrupt Lieutenant in the Imperial Security Bureau who was allied with Takkaro. Bossk, with Bridger's assistance, successfully exposed Jenkes' criminal activities.
During the Imperial Era, five Trandoshans were part of an acquisition crew working for the Xonti Brothers. They journeyed to Kashyyyk, led by Noka, with the intention of capturing Wookiees. Kootan was eager to kill one, but Noka reminded him of their objective. Noka employed his scanner to locate a Wookiee, discovering one that was asleep. Kootan fired a stun blast at it, only to realize it was bleeding and presumed dead. The Trandoshans then found themselves under attack by Krrsantan, who killed the other three Trandoshans and subdued Noka and Kootan. Kootan attempted to kill Krrsantan, but the Wookiee knocked him unconscious before throwing him into a tree, killing him. Krrsantan then demanded that Noka lead him to the Xonti Brothers. Noka complied and lived to recount his story to two journalists.
Feresk Tssat served as a member of the New Republic's Vanguard Squadron during the Galactic Civil War following the Battle of Endor, and fought against the Galactic Empire's Titan Squadron.
The species had a troubled history with the Wookiees, who held the reptilian people in disdain. Some Trandoshans sought alternative employment options beyond hunting. By the Clone Wars era, one such individual was Gha Nachkt, who worked as a salvager. The Confederacy of Independent Systems eventually hired him to scour the wreckage of Galactic Republic ships for valuable data or salvage. Nachkt ultimately recovered the R2 series astromech droid R2-D2 from a Republic Delta-7B Aethersprite-class light interceptor, but the Jedi General and Knight Anakin Skywalker recovered the droid, while Confederate General Grievous killed Nachkt.
Trandoshan Jedi were uncommon because their homeworld's culture clashed with the Jedi Order's principles. Sskeer, a notable Force-sensitive Trandoshan, lived during the High Republic Era. Sskeer, a Jedi Master, was renowned as a scholar and tactician. Keeve Trennis, a human, was his Padawan. Sskeer fought against the Nihil pirates and carnivorous dark side sentient plants known as the Drengir. However, Magrak Syndrome took root in his brain, which limited his connection to the Force but therefore spared him the effects of the Nameless.
Bossk's bounty hunting career led him to diverse locations throughout the galaxy, and he was briefly associated with the bounty hunters Aurra Sing and Castas. Bossk and Fett collaborated with the other bounty hunters to avenge Jango, Fett's deceased father, by assassinating Mace Windu, the Jedi who fought and killed Jango. Sing later killed Castas, while Republic authorities arrested Bossk and Fett after a failed assassination. However, Bossk and Fett escaped the Republic prison during a prison riot. They later formed a team of bounty hunters on Tatooine and accepted a contract from the Belugan government on Quarzite. Although adversaries subdued Bossk during the mission, Asajj Ventress, a team member, completed the mission to a certain extent. Upon discovering that the cargo they were hired to protect was Pluma Sodi, a native Kage female, Ventress swapped the imprisoned girl with Fett and received payment for the job's completion before the change was discovered.
Nack Movers, a Trandoshan assassin renowned in the Coruscant underworld, acquired a lightsaber at some point during the Clone Wars. His girlfriend, Ione Marcy, later murdered him and took the lightsaber for herself.
Ciddarin Scaleback, a Trandoshan information broker and cantina owner, operated a parlor on Ord Mantell. Following the establishment of the Empire, Scaleback enlisted the services of the Bad Batch, a group of rogue Clone commandos. In exchange for shelter and funding, Scaleback hired them as mercenaries for various missions, including rescuing the rancor Muchi, recovering the head of a tactical droid, and the former Separatist senator Avi Singh. Scaleback also formed a close bond with Omega, a female adolescent clone, assisting her in developing her potential as a tactician and dejarik player. Scaleback and the Bad Batch gradually cultivated a mutually beneficial relationship, with the latter aiding her in reclaiming her parlor from Roland Durand, a Devaronian crime lord.
In 1 BBY, Seevor and Proach, both Trandoshans, served the Mining Guild as captain and foreman, respectively, on the Ore crawler, Crawler 413-24, until their deaths during the hijacking of the vessel by the Spectres, a rebel group. In 3 ABY, Bossk encountered Doshanalawook, his long-presumed-dead sister, who sought to usher in a new era of Wookiee-Trandoshan cooperation. While he pledged to cease hunting Wookies during their meeting, Bossk subsequently accepted a contract from the Galactic Empire to locate the rebel freighter known as the Millennium Falcon, whose crew included Chewbacca, a Wookiee he was eager to slay. Boba Fett, now an adult, completed the job before him.
The Strassi family, a Trandoshan crime family, was part of Jabba the Hutt's criminal empire, with Dokk Strassi, their leader, serving as one of Jabba's captains. Following Jabba's death in 4 ABY, Bib Fortuna, the Hutt's majordomo, assumed control of the criminal empire, prompting the Trandoshan family to secede and attempt to usurp his position, but they were unsuccessful. Furthermore, the family became protectors of the city center and business districts of Mos Espa on Tatooine, maintaining an uneasy alliance with Fortuna.
By 9 ABY, during the era of the New Republic, several Trandoshans were members of the Bounty Hunters' Guild following the collapse of the Galactic Empire in 5 ABY. One of these bounty hunters accompanied Greef Karga, the guild's leader, to meet Din Djarin, a bounty hunter who had become a rogue after rescuing a child of the same species as Yoda, the Jedi Grand Master. As the group camped for the night, a group of native reptavians attacked them. One of the creatures seized the Trandoshan with its feet and carried him off into the night.
When Boba Fett, having retired from bounty hunting, overthrew Bib Fortuna and established his own gotra from Jabba's former empire, Strassi of the Trandoshan family paid tribute to the new Daimyo and agreed to neutrality when the Pyke Syndicate challenged Fett's territories. Meanwhile, Trandoshan gamblers were attacked by Krrsantan in the Sanctuary cantina in Mos Espa. Despite Garsa Fwip, the proprietor's, intervention, Krrsantan ripped the arm off one of the Trandoshans. When the Pykes attacked Mos Espa, the Trandoshan family betrayed Fett, and several of them attacked Krrsantan, who was working for the Daimyo. Krrsantan killed a number of them and escaped, with Fennec Shand, Fett's assassin, going on to assassinate Strassi. Also in 9 ABY, the Trandoshan Charr was part of the Hunters of the Outer Rim competition.
A Trandoshan named Skreek worked for a gang of pirates under Kragan Gorr, the Warbird gang, in the late New Republic Era. After Gorr allied his gang with the Colossus due to their mutual enemy in the First Order, tensions rose between the pirates and Captain Imanuel Doza. In an effort to wrestle control of the Colossus from Doza, Skreek and his fellow pirates enlisted a battalion of B2-series super battle droids from pirate Sidon Ithano, only for the reprogrammed B1-series battle droid "B1" to take control of the force. Skreek and his fellow pirates were then exiled from the Colossus.
The Trandoshan species made its debut in the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back through a cameo appearance by the bounty hunter Bossk. Trandoshans have also been featured in numerous Legends works, including the Star Wars Marvel Comics, the Young Jedi Knights young adult novel series, and Dark Horse Comics' Knights of the Old Republic comics. The species has also appeared in several Canon works, including the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Ryder Windham's young reader novella Ezra's Gamble, and the Marvel comic series Star Wars Darth Vader.
Trandoshans also served as secondary antagonists in "Peril on Kashyyyk," a non-Canon LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures episode that premiered on Disney XD on June 27, 2016. The episode depicts an antagonistic relationship between Trandoshans and Wookiees, with the former acting as proxies for the Galactic Empire. The Trandoshans capture Tantarra, the son of Chief Attiburra, and hold him hostage in an island fortress. The Freemakers, a scavenging family, rescue him in exchange for a piece of wroshyr wood from the Wookiees.