Squib
Species: Squib
Home Planet: Squab, Skor & Skor II
Squib
Squibs were a sentient species from Skor II known for collecting, trading, and haggling. Adult Squibs had humanoid bodies averaging a meter in height. They were covered in colorful fur and had pointed snouts, tufted ears, and large eyes. Squibs tasted objects by rubbing them over their fur. They were gregarious, insatiably curious, and obsessed with haggling and deal-making. It was said that the easiest way to get information from a Squib was to propose a trade.
Skor II was rich in natural resources, but these were unevenly distributed. As the Squibs developed the compulsion to collect and stockpile baubles, some tribes settled down while others became nomadic traders. Over time, a complex system of trade and barter emerged. After their discovery by the galaxy at large, the Squibs established themselves as galactic scavengers and rivals to the Ugors. King Ebareebaveebeedee, who vocally supported the Galactic Republic during the Separatist Crisis, struck agreements with galactic interests to place Squibs aboard capital spacecraft as laborers. The Galactic Empire considered these Squibs slaves, but they provided salvage vessels with the locations of Imperial dumpsites. The species later signed a pact of mutual support with the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
Squib salvagers reclaimed, refurbished, and resold rubbish both planetside and deep in space. Many worked directly for the Squib Merchandising Consortium, while others operated independently. Although most stayed within the law, some found work as forgers, thieves, and even crime lords. The Solo family had several encounters with the Squibs Emala, Grees, and Sligh, who operated as black market art dealers and information brokers.
Biology & Appearance:
Squibs were small, sentient, humanoid mammals with both rodent and canine characteristics. They ranged from 0.8 to 1.2 meters in height and weighed 22 kilograms on average. Their pink skin was covered in fur that ranged from white, gray, black, and brown to blue, violet, and red. This coat served as an important olfactory organ, able to pick up scents at a distance and ascertain intrinsic details such as seeing through a disguise or identifying a forgery when rubbed against. This led to a common Squib greeting: rubbing a person's palm across the cheek fur. As Squibs often wore gloves, this conveyed more information than a simple handshake. The hackles stood on end when a Squib was nervous. Squibs wore clothing and footwear, but individuals left fur exposed to facilitate olfaction.
Squib eyes were large in relation to the skull and located on the sides of the head. They came in shades of blue, yellow, red, and brown. Their large ears often sported tufts of fur whose color could differ from that of the main coat. These pointed upward and could pivot to zero in on specific sounds. The short Squib muzzle tapered to a bewhiskered black nose. Their mouths were full of forbidding, sharp teeth. Squibs could store items in their flexible cheeks. The species had nimble, five-fingered hands and five toes on each foot. Non-Squibs often considered the small beings humorous in appearance.
The Squibs had quick metabolisms and relatively short life spans. A Squib was considered a child (fuzzling) until 9 standard years of age. Sexual maturity occurred at 13 standard years. Beginning at around 39 years, a Squib entered middle age, when the fur grayed and the face wrinkled. Squib life expectancy was about 65 standard years.
Society & Culture:
Squibs were cheerful, gregarious, and overconfident to the point of egotism. They were friendly and unintimidating, making them quite likable—at first. Over time, Squib acquaintances could grow to regard the beings as slightly annoying to downright obnoxious; over many encounters, Leia Organa Solo came to strongly dislike the species. Furbag and furball were derisive terms for Squibs.
Squibs were inherently curious. They handled anything that interested them, usually by rubbing it against their fur with little forethought as to whether doing so might be harmful. Squib curiosity and propensity for haggling made them unabashed pack rats. Typical clothing included pockets and pouches to stuff with odds and ends that caught their eye. A Squib could never tell when one of these items might be useful in making a deal. These drives earned the species a reputation as thieves among some members of the galactic community.
Cheerful overconfidence was a definitive trait. The typical Squib response to a threat was not to fight or flee, but to bluff and bluster. This was particularly true when the Squibs were out of sight, as when communicating from a Squib spacecraft. However, their sharp teeth were a favored means of intimidation when they felt such a tactic was necessary.
Squibs were known for resourcefulness and improvisation. This manifested itself both in Squib technology and art. For example, many Squibs sported homemade ion blasters, cobbled together from spare parts, which they used to disable droids they wished to reclaim. Squib artists utilized found objects (i.e., garbage), which they organized into intricate and beautiful works. For example, the audience chamber on the Squib Momship Thrifty featured murals of Squib craft, the collapse of the Paradise system, and the Rebel Alliance operatives who helped to bring it about.
Haggling:
To Squibs, bargaining was an art form. The highest compliment one could pay a Squib was that he or she bargained well, and a Squib denied the chance to haggle for any length of time could grow withdrawn and melancholy. Some members of the species claimed to have trained in the Mystic Martial Arts of Squib Combats and Transactions, and the species even celebrated a holiday called Haggleday. Haggling was superior to all other impulses, and the Squibs were experts at it.
Squib bargaining followed three major rules: 1) If something was free, it was a good deal; 2) bargaining was the highest form of communication; 3) when dealing with Ugors, all bets were off. A few other principles also applied. First, Squibs preferred to bargain face-to-face. This allowed them to play up their small, unassuming appearance and make their opponent feel overconfident. Next, by tradition, the party who wanted something (usually the Squib) had to make the first offer. They could be insistent on this, refusing to talk or answer questions until a potential business partner made the first move. Persistence—to the point of pestering—was a favored tactic. Squibs continually asked for things that the owner had expressed no interest in parting with, hoping that they would eventually give in out of sheer annoyance.
The haggling process itself was more valued than any spoils obtained. In Squib reckoning, a good bout of bargaining let both sides think they were getting the better deal at least once. A key to Squib success was to involve as much complexity and as many individuals as possible: the more intricate a deal, the better, and a confused customer was a good customer. Squibs preferred to trade for things whose values were are not easily comparable, thus preventing anyone from really knowing who got the best bargain. By involving several partners, any losses were spread out, and the chances that any one party felt any more than mildly ripped off were minimized. Although the negotiations themselves could be quite intricate, the terms of the deal could preferably be completed quickly, without lengthy payments or interest (considered more the Ugors' style).
Squib ideas of value differed from those of most other beings. Worth was determined by something called kRR value, a concept not easily translatable. Gaining a great quantity of something or obtaining something novel was highly desirable. Squibs preferred to trade things they could see and touch; abstract commodities, such as information, were less attractive. Anything could be brought to the bargaining table, including a Squib's own offspring. The species' legends told of a mythical, idyllic junk heap of the ancients.
A deal was a binding oath. Squibs went to great lengths to ensure their arrangements went through, and they were incredibly loyal to their business partners, even accompanying them—saving their lives if need be—to help them complete their end of a bargain. Nevertheless, Squib interpretations of business arrangements could be fluid and subjective; many of their partners later found themselves wondering whether the Squibs were still adhering to the terms at all. The beings genuinely shunned deception and theft, however, so any apparent reneging was often perfectly justified in their own minds. For example, they believed that cheating was perfectly acceptable as long as they did not lie outright. The Squib crime lord Slythor, for instance, often threw in R4-B11 with deals he made; the droid was programmed to kill the business partners and return with the goods Slythor had traded them. Despite this flightiness, many beings knew Squibs to be mostly honest; in fact, Morseerians often preferred dealing with Squibs to other species.
Language:
Squibs read, wrote, and spoke a language called Squibbian. The language developed from Old High Squibbian, a tongue that remained in use as a secret form of communication for spies to convey the coordinates of trash dumps and for traders to avoid being understood by those with whom they were bartering. Squib names tended to be rather long, although the beings usually adopted shorter forms for use with non-Squibs. For example, the names Galaneever-marmalios, Meelawindemort, and Sleerinwilpher-remalior shortened to Galan, Meela, and Wilpher, respectively.
Most Squibs spoke Basic. Some achieved fluency, but more often, a Squib's command of the tongue was less than perfect. Few Squibs could read and write the language. They often had thick accents, and their knowledge of idiom could be quite limited. It could be difficult to determine what information Squibs were trying to convey: they might speak too quickly, combine seemingly incongruous subjects in a single breath, or mention things that seemed of no relevance to the discussion at hand. Squibs peppered their Basic with unusual expressions, such as koovy and often ended sentences with "you bet." When bargaining, however, Squibs were meticulous about explaining terms. Trading with Squibs was a sure method of getting information from them.
Institutions:
Skor II was governed by the Squib Polyanarchy, autonomous communities under the rule of a mostly hands-off king. In addition, all Squibs were employees of a species-wide corporation called the Squib Merchandising Consortium (SMC), which held important contracts with galactic and planetary governments to collect, refurbish, and resell refuse. The degree of involvement varied; at one extreme were individuals such as Squib diplomats, recognizable by the ceremonial Fizz-Pop Cap (with foil cluster); at the other were independent traders. The head of the SMC was known as the Illustrious Chieftain of Junkyards. During the reign of Ebareebaveebeedee, this post was held by the king, although it is not known if this was always the case. All Squibs were beholden to High Squibbian Law, a system that, for example, forbade the king from using the ceremonial items hanging from his robes and stipulated that possession was nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine one-thousandths of the law. The Polyanarchy was historically apolitical, although it supported the Galactic Republic during the Separatist Crisis and signed a pact of mutual support with the Alliance to Restore the Republic sometime between the battles of Yavin and Hoth.
One major arm of the SMC and a major Squib employer was the Squib Reclamation Fleet. Its vessels followed capital ships from one jump point to the next, collecting garbage jettisoned along the way. Squibs worked on the capital ships as garbage collectors and conveyed to the fleet the coordinates of dumps and any trade opportunities in the area. The Reclamation Fleet was shadowed by vessels of the Squibs' rivals, the Ugors, who would swoop in, attack any Squib craft, and try to grab as much salvage as possible.
Technology:
The Squibs had access to all aspects of galactic technology, although it differed from the standard in that it was often created from salvaged components refitted in ways their original makers never intended. Squib companies, such as Fegegrish Heavy Industrials, sold personal gear across the galaxy. The shoulder-mounted Squib battering ram, for example, weakened obstructions at the molecular level and was sold for military use although it was also popular with pirate groups for breaching the hulls of their targets. Nevertheless, Squib inventions often proved a hard sell to other species. The C2-R4 multi-purpose droid flopped due to its poor aesthetics and confusingly over-abundant functionality. Squib inventors rarely lost heart, however; a failed product simply afforded the chance to bargain with the creditors.
Squibs excelled at tractor beam technology. Their tractor beams rivaled the best in the galaxy, and Squib spacers became experts at using them. Squib needle ships, for example, had no weaponry or shields, instead relying on ten tractor beams rumored to be among the most powerful in the galaxy for defense. If attacked, the crew used quick and precise manipulations to erect a wall of garbage around the ship and hurl pieces of refuse at the enemy. The popular garbage grabber was a personal tractor beam with a claw at the end for gathering salvage from hard-to-reach places. Squib engineers developed whole weapons based on tractor beam technology. These tensor weapons attacked with invisible (but loud) compressed waves of tractor energy and disrupted the target's cells highly useful against the unicellular Ugors. Amberlandrax Armaments marketed a rifle of this design. Squibs sometimes took advantage of the noisiness of such weapons to convince dismissive beings to pay attention to them.
Squib starshipwrights constructed spacecraft from second-hand materials. The main vessels of the Squib Reclamation Fleet were the tapered, fifty-meter needle ships, each crewed by twenty individuals. The fleet flagship was for many years the Wholesale. Other important vessels were the Momships, one of which was the personal vessel of the Squib king. Ebareebaveebeedee's vessel was the Thrifty. Others traveled in tramp freighters or Squib scout ships, small craft armed with only a single tractor beam. Some Squib craft were considered "Uglies" similar to those employed by pirate groups.
History:
The Squibs evolved on Skor II, a small, dense world in the Skor system, just west of the Rimma Trade Route in the Outer Rim Territories. The planet possessed a diverse ecosystem, varied terrain, and vast resources spread far across its surface. Early tribes of Squibs were thus forced to travel from region to region to find necessities. Accumulating material goods became an ingrained part of the Squib psyche, leading some tribes to found small villages. Those who maintained their nomadic lifestyle took on the added role of merchants, trading foreign goods with their sedentary brethren. Bargaining became a deep-seated part of Squib culture.
The Squibs advanced to the point of mass production and developed a peaceful, species-wide government called the Polyanarchy. Sometime between 1000 BBY and a few centuries before the fall of the Republic, a Dorcin trader discovered their world. After a spirited round of negotiations, the offworlder gained mineral rights to some frigid wastes, while the Squibs learned the intricacies of starship technology. Shortly after the Ruusan Reformation, the Squib species was given an entry in the Jedi training manual The Jedi Path by the Jedi biologist Bowspritz. The biologist noted that Squibs had helped to get him out of trouble in the past, but that the experiences cost him a lot of credits. In marginalia added by other Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi noted that he considered them thieves.
The Squibs' natural curiosity and mastery of haggling helped them to carve out a niche as interstellar garbage collectors and scavengers. While Squib settlers colonized other planets, Squib companies signed contracts to haul rubbish from populous worlds and other corporations refurbished the junk for resale. Skor II became a prosperous trade world with a major population center at Metrobig City. Sometime before 20 BBY, the planet joined the Galactic Republic.
Meanwhile, the Squibs' activities put them in direct competition with another scavenger species: the Ugors. Over time, the species developed a fraught antagonism, practically to the point of war. The Squibs came to regard the Ugors as their hereditary foes, and the Ugors made the Squibs de facto demons in their religion of trash worship.
Squib in the Galaxy:
Although a few held mundane jobs, such as flying air taxis on Coruscant, garbage was everywhere, and Squibs were where the garbage was. Many capital ships contracted Squib sanitation workers to handle onboard refuse. A telltale sign that Squibs were aboard was that ejected trash had been stripped of potentially valuable parts. Many galactic citizens came to regard the beings as no more than laborers, an idea that persisted well into the days of the New Jedi Order. Especially in the Imperial period, Squib garbage workers kept a low profile and avoided contact with their employers; others broke their contracts due to mistreatment. Rebel Alliance operatives cultivated disaffected Squibs to gain valuable logistical and operational intelligence about Imperial vessels. In 3 ABY, undercover Alliance operatives were subcontracted by the Squib Jeremos to work aboard the Star Destroyer Indomitable. They used their position to gain access to sensitive areas of the ship and further their mission.
Some Squibs were fringers, scavenging on a single planet. Squeerie, for example, led a team on Almas c. 32 BBY and helped a group of agents working for Lanius Qel-Bertuk find the lost Jedi Master Kirlocca. Sometime after Order 66 and the Clone Wars, members of Squeerie's group, led by Jiminaldo-mabbramsti (Jimi), encountered agents of Jedi Master Denia while fighting with a group of Ugors over the salvage of a damaged droid in the ruins of Almas Academy. No sooner had the offworlders mediated the dispute when a group of Dark Lizards attacked all parties. Maja was a Squib who purchased salvage rights to a waste field on the third moon of Kothlis c. 4 ABY. He was trapped in a Plexus Droid Vessel and soon found himself facing a group of adventurers who needed information from the PDV. As any good Squib trader, Maja gave up his would-be personal craft for the right price.
Other Squibs took to a life as spacers. Some acted as scouts, passively scanning deep space for interesting junk floating by, while others tracked vessels to reclaim their garbage dumps. Squib vessels joined the wreckage of the Hoth asteroid field while attempting to salvage the remains of the Mugaari pirate Icanis Tsur 's ship. For instance, during the Galactic Civil War, a Squib spacer was present at the bar called the Maze when a group of would-be Rebel Alliance operatives fled Imperial stormtroopers. In 13 ABY, the crew of a Squib prospector vessel was detained on the Quarantine Enforcement Cruiser Lycoming. A Squib tourist in Piringiisi on Sullust survived a dianoga attack, alerting the authorities to the presence of the predator in the mud pits there.
Squib traders traveled to even the most remote and secretive locations to sell reconditioned goods, prompting many top-secret installations to completely rethink their security procedures. They were one of the few species to have established any significant presence in the Unknown Regions, for example. Their language was one of the many lingua franca used in that area of space, and one Squib scout made first contact with a pair of explorers of the Chiss species. The species was so well established that Squibs were among the many targets presented by the holographic shooting range of Almas Academy. A Squib named Kwilper wandered from spaceport to spaceport selling pieces of art he had fashioned from salvaged junk, and in 3 ABY, a Squib named Veeter found himself stranded on Dalicron-4, desperate to repair his ship and return to his wandering lifestyle. Occasionally, roving Squib traders obtained goods whose value even they could not imagine. One found himself the center of a bidding war among parties interested in a data storage unit with an important decryption program.
Squibs opened second-hand shops in spaceport towns. Around 0 BBY, Macemillian-winduarté helped run Jawa Traders, a droid shop on Tatooine. The gray-furred Squib had to deal with thugs hired by Jabba the Hutt to collect protection money from him. At one point, a group of spacers helped him resist such a shakedown; Macemillian-winduarté loaned the offworlders a landspeeder in gratitude. In 9 ABY, Arrejis Mellaha operated Serooin's Gear on the smugglers' world Betha II. In 13 ABY, Sheebareevadee ran Sheebareevadee's Emporium of Interstellar Goods on Gamorr. Other Squib traders operated on the planets Asation and Kabal.
Other Squibs took up the life of scoundrels. Their ranks included petty thieves, such as the pickpocket-turned-Rebel Smileredon-Verdont, forgers, like the two Squibs employed by the Sljee Jeseej on Coruscant, infochants, such as Burnout space station's Blasnic, and full-fledged crime lords, such as Slythor, who controlled salvage operations on Korad. Four Squib thieves were tasked by Quip Fargil at Sriluur to steal components from an Interdictor cruiser to help upgrade the hyperdrive of the Millennium Falcon. Emala, Grees, and Sligh were a trio of scoundrels who had dealings with the Solo family over the years. In 8 ABY, they were working as information brokers, selling data to the New Republic. They teamed up with the Solos to obtain the painting Killik Twilight, which contained hidden data sensitive to the New Republic. They later worked with members of the Invisible Shell, but when their patsy, Ludlo Lebauer, learned of their scheme, he froze Grees in carbonite. The Squibs manipulated the Solos into helping them rescue their companion on Pavo Prime. Following the Yuuzhan Vong War, the three were still selling artwork, and their organization had grown to include Emala's children, Krafte and Seneki, as well as Squib assassins. A small group of Squib nobles plied the spacelanes.
A few Squibs had a talent for the Force. Some of these had no idea of their gifts and remained on Skor II, but others were trained as Jedi. A popular series of children's stories from the Republic period focused on a roguish Squib Jedi who was rumored to be based on a real individual. The series went to several volumes; the third was titled Busteromuchmacho and the Vermillion Shadow. Years later, in 35 ABY, a Squib Jedi was training at the Jedi Academy of Ossus.
Around 220 BBY, a Squib vessel crash landed on the planet Holador. The survivors broadcast a distress signal and hunkered down to be rescued, to no avail. When their equipment failed, they were forced to revert to a primitive lifestyle. Over seven generations, the Squibs took to worshiping their comm relay as a Holy Icon and hoping for the day offworlders would once again return them to the stars. A Twi'lek bounty hunter named Kelyan tried to convince the village that a group of visiting adventurers were dangerous, but the village elder, Alexem, was convinced that she was manipulating them.
Circa 24 ABY, a Squib salvage scow recovered a number of artifacts from the ruins of the planet Byss, including a copy of the book The Jedi Path.
Attribute Dice: 12D
DEXTERITY 2D+2/4D+2
KNOWLEDGE 1D/3D
MECHANICAL 2D/4D
PERCEPTION 2D/4D
STRENGTH 1D/3D
TECHNICAL 1D/3D
Story Factors:
Haggling: Squibs are born to haggle, and, once they get started, there is no stopping them. The surest way to lure a Squib into a trap is to give it the chance to make a deal.
Move: 8/10
Size: 1 meter tall
Source: Ultimate Alien Anthology (pages 150-151), Alien Anthology (pages 103-104), Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races (pages 83-84) & Wookieepedia (For the Squib Description)
See Also