Jawa

Jawas (じゃわ, Jawa) are typically short rodent-like natives of Tatooine. They are passionate scavengers, seeking out technology for sale or trade in the deep deserts in their huge sandcrawler transports. They had a reputation for swindling, as they had a penchant for selling old equipment. However, they were extremely passive beings, and hardly put up any resistance to colonists of their planet unlike the other natives the Sand People, instead seeing foreigners as an excellent business opportunity. Their ancestry is shared by Kanassans, it makes them relatives.

Physiology
Jawas are easily identifiable by their traditional brown hooded robes, though it was not unheard of for them to wear other colors. Other notable features included their glowing yellow eyes, small stature and high pitched sounds. Jawas appeared to be gaunt, rodent-like creatures, with shrunken faces and yellow eyes. Jawas and Kanassans, two native species of Tatooine, originally evolved from the same extinct species, as both have common genetic markers. Jawas are also related with Humans because Kanassans are also Near-Humans.

At all times, Jawa faces remained obscured by a shroud of cloth to retain moisture, hide their identity and dissipate their body heat. Polished orange gemstones were embedded within the fabric to protect the Jawas’ sensitive vision from the bright sunlight. The only physical parts that were exposed were their hands, which had tufts of fur on the palms. Jawas were renowned for their incredibly potent odor. Repulsive to most species, this odor contained incredible amounts of information such as other Jawas' identity, health, clan lineage, last meal, maturity, arousal and even their mood. Their odor was compounded by a mysterious solution Jawas dipped their clothes in to retain moisture, and their view of bathing as being a waste of precious water, which attracted swarms of insects to gather in the recesses of their hoods.

Society and Culture
Jawas were a communal, compulsive scavenger species who spent most of their life devoted to scavenging the deserts of Tatooine in search of any scrap metal, droid or mechanical part left behind from millennia of star travel and technological advancement, where the dry climate of Tatooine preserved almost all debris. Most non-Jawas regarded the Jawas as scavengers and thieves, a description that most Jawas actually found pleasing.

Social Organization
Jawas lived in separate clan families, each with distinct, separate territories for living and scavenging. Each Sandcrawler was led by a Clan-Chief (しゅせき, Shuseki), who was male. However the overall operation of the Jawa clan was overseen by a female Shaman (きとうし, Kitoushi). A female Jawa became a shaman by either possessing some kind of Force ability with which to perform magic, overcoming an illness accompanied by a hallucinatory vision or was chosen and trained as the successor to the current Shaman. The shamans were believed to possess the ability to foretell the future, and performed spells, hexes and blessings to protect the clan and ensure the well being of all clan members. This title gave them a great deal of respect throughout the clan, which was strange in the largely patriarchal Jawa society, and this allowed the shaman to assume a position where they were to be consulted upon, and asked often for their wisdom. With the important position within the society, the shaman did not travel in the sandcrawler and instead remained within the safety of the clan's fortress. Other than shamans, females were shown little respect in Jawa society.

The primary activity in a Jawa’s life was scavenging and trading within their sandcrawler vehicles. Upon reaching adulthood, Jawas were chosen to work on their Sandcrawlers, and participate in the scavenger hunt, the search, trade and reselling of useful wares found within the deserts. All remaining Jawas lived within fortresses, nestled deep in the desert where their collected wares were stored, and Jawa children could be born and grow safely. The scavenging Jawas would return to their fortresses before Tatooine’s storm season commenced. These fortresses had high walls made from large chunks of old wrecked spacecraft for protection against Sand People, Sand Dragons and sandstorms.

Language
Jawas spoke Jawaese, a randomly variable language which was difficult to interpret due to its extremely high speech rate, and the Jawas' use of scent to add emphasis and tone to their words. To enable Jawas to more easily bargain and trade with other species, they relied on a simplified form of Jawaese, the Jawa Trade Language which removed the use of scent in the language and was quite easily learned by species that commonly dealt with Jawa traders.

Technology
Jawas only rarely ever carried weapons due to their usual passive nature. However they did mostly rely on Ion Blasters that shot beams of energy to disable droids, and restraining bolts for keeping them under control. Most Jawas also carried around various tools for repairing droids. They were also adept at creating custom droids, cobbled together from spare parts of other droids. These monster droids, as they were called, could be specially designed for the specific needs of a customer.

Trivia

 * Jawa of M.U. is based on "Jawas" from Star Wars.