Troig

Troig

Species: Troig
Home Planet: Pollillus

Troig
The Troigs were a distinctive two-headed species from Pollillus. The Troigs were a species of beings with two heads and four arms. A Troig would have one hand as its primary with the other three as off hands. Because the two sets of arms were controlled independently by each head, they lacked good coordination. While most Troigs were born with a pair of heads, and each had its own mind, Troigs with three or more heads were rare and celebrated in Troig culture. Each head, being one individual entity was known respectively as the Saprin and the Saprah. The Saprin, or right head, was the source of "breath humors": loyalty, faith, and cunning, whereas the Saprah, or left head, was the source of "blood humors": love, anger, and passion. Each head and identity was constantly aware of the other, and the two names were joined by the conjunction sin (i.e. "Fode" and "Beed" becomes "Fodesinbeed"). They were unique for being one of the rare species with two heads. Each head was capable of thought and speech, making them two individuals who share one body.

As a species, they were discovered by the wider galaxy shortly before the Invasion of Naboo. Notable Troig included the podracer commentator Fodesinbeed, and AndroosinLiann, host of the Eriadu talk show Essence.

Biology & Appearance:
The Troigs were a species of sentient bipeds characterized by their multiple heads. Each Troig had at least two heads, although very rare specimens were born with three or more. Although each of these heads was for all practical purposes a unique individual with his or her own personality, memories, will, and skills, the species' nervous system connected the heads together and gave them limited telepathic ability with one another. The neural connection thus allowed each head to send instantaneous warnings to the other and help them avoid hazards, for instance. The connection between Troig heads was so strong that if only one head learned a foreign language, another head that shared the same body could understand the first head when he or she spoke that tongue. Unconsciousness in one head did not necessitate a similar condition in the other, although one effective technique for anyone in combat with a Troig was to bang the two heads together to lead to dual loss of consciousness. Death of one head inevitably led to the death of the other unless advanced medical technology were available. With medical intervention, Troig heads could theoretically be separated from one another, although only one could survive such an operation.

The typical Troig cranium was roughly conical. The skull sloped backward from the brow before rounding off to a dome; it then tapered to a point at the top of the head. Finally, the cranium dropped down in the back, bulged out at the back of the head, and then sloped down toward the neck. Some Troig heads had short horns. Not all Troigs had hair, but it grew on some Troig faces and atop some Troig heads. The color varied from brown to green or pink. The hair's consistency and thickness varied such that some Troigs had hair long enough to pull back into a topknot, while others left it as short bristles.

Although each of a Troig's heads could exhibit radically different facial features, their faces were generally narrow with a roughly humanoid structure of two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. The eyes were wide-set and featured slit pupils. The sclera could be either yellow or white, while the iris came in shades of brown, yellow, orange, red, or green. Having two sets of eyes gave Troigs excellent peripheral vision and allowed them to monitor two objects simultaneously. Heavy brows protected their visual organs, and fleshy growths sometimes grew from below the eyes as well and projected toward the sides of the head. Each of a Troig's mouths was framed in a pair of mutable lips and housed a set of white teeth and a dark-pink tongue. Some heads also featured a pair of thick growths along the bottoms of the cheeks that flanked the mouth. Troig noses showed great variation; some were short and flat, others tall and narrow. Two small tentacles grew from each side of each head. Troigs also had ears with which to hear.

The necks that supported each head were long and agile and split from a common source at the top of the torso. There they met a sunken chest that supported the four shoulders, each attached to an arm. The two pairs of arms were situated one before the other such that the Troig had a front frontmost and rearmost set of arms, the forward pair being situated slightly closer to the ground than the back pair. The arms held three- or four-fingered hands with gray claws. For two-headed Troigs, each head controlled one set of arms. Still, the Troig had only one hand capable of the same level of dexterity as a right- or left-handed being's preferred hand, so that the other three hands were less adept. For instance, a Troig might wield four weapons simultaneously, even if only one hand could do so with full dexterity. The synchronization of their hands was not developed enough in most cases to afford them extra climbing or grappling ability. Nevertheless, Troigs learned to use their two heads in tandem to allow them to manipulate objects with multiple hands simultaneously, and some were truly multi-dextrous.

The chest met a plump abdomen whose flesh came to a protruding crest at the median that extended from the sternum and down to the groin. A wide posterior and hips led to thin thighs, which attached to knobby, backward-bent knees on two relatively short, thickset legs that terminated in hoofed, three-toed feet. The feet were barely distinguishable from the conical lower leg, The average member of the species stood between 1.96 and 2.00 meters tall. A long, whiplike tail with a spiked, knobby bulge at its end grew from the posterior.

Troigs sported several possible skin colorations: cream, brown, black, green, orange, red, and yellow were all known. Often each of a Troig's heads sported a different color scheme; one green head and one red head was the most common pattern. Even on the body, a single individual could have skin that varied in hue from one body part to another, like a dominant skin town with a paler shade on the underbelly and the insides of the arms of and legs. Alternatively, a Troig might sport one primary color mottled with another. Wrinkles covered the hide, often forming complex patterns. For instance, the skin of the necks and arms was striated with bands of deep-set wrinkles.

Society & Culture:
Troigs were thought unique in the galaxy for having two separate personalities that shared the same body. Still, the degree of the two heads' individuality was a matter of debate in medical and philosophical circles. On the one hand, the two heads acted together to create a single sense of identity for a single Troig. A Troig's heads had a symbiotic relationship of mutual interdependence; they looked out for one another such that it was extremely difficult to surprise a Troig. Indeed, certain personality traits were common among Troig heads, such as outgoing conviviality and curiosity. On the other, the two heads exhibited personalities that were unique from one another, and each thought independently of the other to the point that a Troig might even have an argument with itself. The complexities of their multiple heads and personae gave problems to grammarians as well, since discussing Troigs brought up issues of whether to refer to a single entity with multiple personalities with singular or plural pronouns, and whether to refer to the entity as a Troig or as Troigs. In general, however, Basic was to count as one entity and use singular forms of words when referring to all heads that shared a single body.

For a two-headed Troig, the left head was referred to as Saprah. This head was considered to be the source of "blood humors" that regulated powerful emotions such as anger, love, and passion. Meanwhile, the right head was called Saprin. It was thought to be the source of "breath humors," which controlled the Troig's senses of cunning, faith, and loyalty. Those rare Troigs born with more than two heads were highly revered in their society to the point of becoming celebrities.

Rarely, one head could develop mental illness and become detrimental to its mate. For this reason, Troig society recognized the necessity to separate heads in such circumstances. Nevertheless, galactic-standard surgical techniques were not advanced enough to allow for successful separation well into the period of the Galactic Empire.

On their homeworld, Troigs held standard occupations, such as diplomats. had access only to relatively primitive technology. Nevertheless, their natural ability to multitask supported thriving crafts industries on Pollillus. Some Troigs eschewed most clothing and went about nude. Others wore clothing, such as trousers and vests, albeit vests tailored to their four-armed physique. Hairstyles were equally varied, with some Troigs wearing their locks in topknots and growing out mustaches and beards with beds strung over them. Troigs lived together in population centers; one such was Twin Cities. Those Troigs who emigrated from Pollillus were able to adapt to galactic-standard technology.

Troigs were talented linguists. If one head learned a language, the other could instinctively understand what its partner said. Among the languages some Troigs mastered were Basic and Huttese. The species' own tongue was known as Troig. Indigenous names for Troigs followed a pattern whereby each head had its own name, which were joined together with the infix sin. So, for example, a Troig with heads named Fode and Beed was known by the combined name FodesinBeed. The system emphasized both the separateness of the personalities of a Troig's heads, yet it acknowledged the indivisibility of the full Troig. In some transliterations, the sin was capitalized. Similarly, the name that came later was sometimes capitalized, sometimes not. Among speakers of other languages, the two parts of the Troig name were often split so that the individual was known as, say, Fode and Beed. Some Troigs took a surname; one example was Annodue.

History:
Although the specific pressures that led to the development of a two-headed species on the planet remained a mystery, Pollilus served as the site of Troig evolution. Theories as to how their unique physiology might have arisen included the excellent defensive capabilities being able to look in two directions at once afforded Troigs, although the lack of serious predators on Pollilus dampened the prospects of the theory somewhat.

By 32 BBY, the Troigs had developed relatively simple technologies. Around that year, visitors from the outside galaxy visited the world for the first time; these offworlders were ambassadors from the Galactic Republic. Intrigued by the prospect of a galaxy beyond their home star system, Troigs began to leave the world.

Pollilus eventually became integrated into the wider galaxy. It became part of the Core Worlds, although its location just beyond the Koornacht Cluster placed it within the more recently discovered systems known as the Negs. The world was incorporated as part of the Vannell Sector. As the planet became more integrated with the galaxy, more Troigs emigrated to find their fortunes abroad.

During the lead up to the Clone Wars, a Troig named Dwuirsintabb on Pollillus made a public plea to be allowed to have his heads, Dwuir and Tabb, separated. Dwuir claimed that Tabb was "mentally disturbed and suicidal." A poll conducted by HoloNet News, a galactic media outlet, found that 61 percent of respondents supported Dwuir's wish to undergo head-separation surgery. The matter remained unresolved after the Galactic Republic was replaced by the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY. By this point, the Troig government asked for outside help, as Troig technology remained incapable of providing a safe separation. No record of the outcome of Dwuirsintabb's saga survived and his name fell out of galactic records by the time of the retirement of Senior Anthropologist Mammon Hoole in the days of the New Republic.

The Troig homeworld remained neutral during the Clone Wars, as it lay beyond the spheres of influence of both the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. By 137 ABY, the planet fell within territory claimed by the Sith Lord Darth Krayt as part of Galactic Empire.

Troig in the Galaxy:
After the species made first contact with representatives of the Galactic Republic, many Troigs became enthralled by the prospect of visiting the stars and therefore left their planet. By the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Troigs had become common enough on Coruscant that the Besalisk restauranteur Dexter Jettster warned in the menu of his diner that he charged a fifteen percent gratuity to any party of more than three Troigs.

The species' inherent extroversion made them natural entertainers and emcees. For instance, the Troig AndroosinLiann worked as the host of Essence, a talk show broadcasted from the planet Eriadu. During the lead up to the Clone Wars, AndroosinLiann interviewed the Human Republic soldier Laslo Dorits, who accused the Human senator Padmé Amidala of warmongering. Another Troig entertainer worked as a fire-eater in a circus that visited the planet Coruscant at some point after 0 BBY.

By far, the most famous Troig for many years was Fodesinbeed Annodue, one of the earliest members of his species to depart Pollillus. More popularly known as Fode and Beed, the Troig found employment as an announcer for the fast-paced sport of Podracing. By 32 BBY, Fode and Beed had become the most famous sportscaster in the Outer Rim Territories and the most famous Troig in the galaxy. Annodue followed the Galactic Podracing Circuit throughout the Outer Rim and became the voices of the sport for most enthusiasts. His ubiquity at the races placed him in the commentators' box during the Boonta Eve Classic on the planet Tatooine in 32 BBY, the year the Human child Anakin Skywalker won the race; afterward, the Troig had to evade an angry mob who accused him of rigging the race. Despite the incident, Annodue appealed to a wide audience with Fode and Beed's bilingual commentating: Fode spoke Basic during races, while Beed spoke Huttese—although Beed was able to speak Basic as well when circumstances required it. The Troig hosted a Podracing program called the Fode and Beed Show and emceed at the Poodoo Lounge on at least one occasion.

Not all offworld Troigs worked in the entertainment industry; for instance, one member of the species served as a pilot-for-hire. The species also dispatched diplomats; one such Troig owned the G2 repair droid called G2-9T but sold it to the Star Tours travel agency at a bargain rate at some point after the Battle of Endor.

Average Troig: Dexterity 1D+2, Knowledge 2D, Mechanical 2D, Perception 3D, Strength 1D+2, Technical 1D+2.

Attribute Dice: 12D
DEXTERITY 1D/3D+2
KNOWLEDGE 1D+1/4D
MECHANICAL 1D+1/4D
PERCEPTION 2D+1/5D
STRENGTH 1D/3D+2
TECHNICAL 1D/3D+2

Special Abilities:
Ambidexterity: Troigs are naturally ambidextrous, and suffer no off-hand penalties.

Hard to Surprise: Because a Troig's heads are constantly looking out for one another, they are difficult to surprise. As such, they gain a +1D bonus to all Search skill checks to detect ambushes.

Multitasking: Due to the fact that their two heads share two arms, Troigs can do two things at once and suffer no penalties. Each head performs separate actions in combat, as well. The two heads can combine actions, as well (refer to the rules for combined actions, SWD6, pages 82-83).

Two Heads: All Troigs have at least two heads, and each head houses a separate mind and personality. The two heads share a limited form of telepathy, and they can understand one another perfectly even if one is speaking a language the other does not know.

Game Notes:
This isn't a direct conversion of a species from "Secrets of Tatooine," but rather an extrapolation on the Troig race (of which the sportscaster Fodesinbeed (aka, Fode and Beed) belongs).

Move: 10/12
Size: 1.96-2.00 meters tall
Source: Wookieepedia (For the Troig Description)