The Wookiee honor code served as a cultural regulation among Wookiees, prohibiting the utilization of their retractable claws for purposes beyond ascending trees. In the year 34 ABY, Chewbacca, a male Wookiee hailing from Kashyyyk, intentionally used his claws to kill a First Order stormtrooper as a direct consequence of the murder of his closest companion, Han Solo. Solo's demise was at the hands of his own son, Kylo Ren, a leading figure within the First Order. Despite being fully aware that he was transgressing the Wookiee honor code, Chewbacca justified his actions by asserting that the First Order lacked any sense of honor and that Ren had already violated fundamental principles through his act of patricide.
The initial mention of the Wookiee honor code occurred in the audiobook adaptation of Star Wars: The Force Awakens: A Junior Novel, penned by Michael Kogge, and released on January 15, 2016. While the novel was initially available as an eBook in 2015, the Wookiee honor code was conspicuously absent. It was subsequently incorporated into the paperback edition of the novel, which saw publication on February 16, 2016.
The concept of Wookiees possessing extendable claws to facilitate tree climbing was first conceived by Timothy Zahn in his 1991 novel, Heir to the Empire, which is now classified under the Star Wars Legends banner. Zahn later identified a potential contradiction arising from this detail: if Wookiees indeed possessed claws, Chewbacca would have logically employed them in the original Star Wars films. The subsequent publication of Heir to the Empire Sourcebook in the following year sought to address this discrepancy by positing that Wookiees refrained from using their claws in combat due to a deeply ingrained sense of honor, reserving them exclusively for climbing purposes. Wookiees who violated this code by employing their claws in combat were subject to exile and branded as "madclaws."