Gungan (Jedi Renaissance)

"Despite their recent addition to the Order, Gungan Jedi have already proven to be a proud and honorable addition to our Order. The Gungans are a strongly cultured race, and bring with them a rich history of art, combat training, and development."

- Jedi Knight Horen Hote, writing about Gungans in the Jedi Order.

Gungans were a race of amphibian from the terrestrial world of in the  region of the galaxy. An isolationist species for most of galactic history, the Gungans only began to become involved in the affairs of the galaxy after the invasion of Naboo in Year 3. In dealing with the Galactic Republic, the Gungan government worked together with the greater governance of the Chommell sector to gain representation in the Senate. Highly developed in terms of technology, the Gungans were amiable with the Jedi, believing that the Order had the best interest of the galaxy in mind.

Biology and appearance
A race of sentients, Gungans were a species that belonged to the anura order of amphibians. Gungans were bipedal beings with a bilateral symmetry, having a front and a back end, as well as an upside and downside. Their body comprised a head, neck, torso, and four limbs. The upper limbs, called arms, ended in hands which had four fingers each; the lower ones, called legs, ended in feet with three digits. Gungan fingers had multiple points of articulation, and one of them was an opposable thumb that allowed for fine manipulation. Gungans were cold-blooded animals, meaning their body temperature was dependent on the environment, using the energy from the sun to energize them. Gungans were omnivorous, subsisting on both animal tissue and plant-based foods. Gungans had two sexes: male and female, with the latter being distinguished by their overall smaller stature and smaller eye stalks. Despite overall physiological uniformity, Gungans varied greatly in appearance, and no two Gungans looked exactly alike. One of the diversity factors was height. Gungans averaged 1.9 meters in height, although males were usually taller and heavier than females. Gungan heads were perched atop a long neck that protruded from top of the torso. Auditory organs in the form of tympanic membranes were protected beneath fin-like haillu that hung down the back of the head. Many Gungans tied their haillu back with a leather band when attending ceremonies or during battle. The haillu aided in swimming, as well as expressing emotions like aggression, friendship, and fear. Gungan eyes were yellow in color and were covered with a nictitating membrane. Located atop stubby eye-stalks which could be partially retracted, the Gungan eyes were capable of seeing even in the darkness of the underwater environments of Naboo. Expressive faces and long bills with flaring nostrils were signatures of Gungan physiology. Gungans had nostrils that sealed when they entered the water. They also boasted very strong compound lungs, allowing them to both hold their breath for extended periods of time, breathe underwater, and withstand the pressure of deep water, along with well-padded kneecaps and powerful calves and legs for increased swimming speed. The long Gungan face had a tough yet flexible bill for burrowing and rooting out food. They also had long muscular tongues with which they scooped mollusks and lesser amphibians from the Naboo swamps. Their teeth were large and blunt capable of cracking through shellfish.

Gungans were sexually-reproduced animals, requiring the mating of an opposite sex couple to produce offspring. As amphibians, Gungan females spawned a strand of 1,000 eggs, which hatched into tadpoles. A day after hatching, a single tadpole would cannibalize their clutch-mates and began to develop quickly into the bipedal adolescent form that they would keep for the rest of their life. Gungan bones were extremely flexible and strong, making them agile and swift swimmers, and remarkable jumpers on land. According to the High Strictures the legal transition from childhood to adulthood was only attained after sixteen standard years of life. Gungans had an average lifespan of 58 standard years. Those who were keenly attuned to the Force could live up to 150. At any rate, individuals past the age of 65 were considered to have reached an age worthy of veneration. Natural signs of ageing in Gungans included dulling of skin color, the loss of teeth, and the growth of fleshy tendrils at the tip of their bill. Old Gungans would experience a decline in many cognitive processes, frequently losing track of time, misidentifying people or places and, in extreme cases, momentarily forgetting about their own identity or state.

The Gungan race was divided into two distinct races: the Otolla and Ankura. While the races were visually distinct, they both exhibited many of the same basic physical traits. The Otolla had strong, wide haillu, while the Ankura had short, feeble ones. The former had vibrant orange or red skin, while the latter had a swampy green or violet gradiation. And while the Otolla were slim and agile, the Ankura were slower, heftier, and had hooded eyestalks.

The Gungans appeared to be related to the Glurrgs, whom they used as a worker caste in their society.

Gungans were detailed in the Republic Xenosociological Database, under Subdirectory ORT831-23,794,928/1N.

The Gungans were sentient, amphibious humanoids native to the planet of Naboo. Prior to the Invasion of Naboo, the Gungans were a largely isolationist society. They were able to combine machinery with biology. They lived in large bubble-like domes under water. Gungans had strong leg muscles for swimming and were aided by their long fin-like ears. Their arms ended in four-fingered hands, and their feet had three stubby toes each. Females tended to be slightly smaller with sleeker faces. They often tied their long ears back.

While most spacefarers would dismiss Gungans as primitives, they developed an advanced, albeit unique, technology. They grew the basic structures of buildings, vehicles and technology and adorned them with artistic flourishes and organic lines. This gave Gungan technology a very fluid, non-rectilinear look.

The power source for Gungan technology was a mysterious blue-white energy "goo" that was mined in the depths of Naboo's oceans. The viscous plasmic material formed the basis of Gungan weaponry as well.

The Gungans had mastered energy field technology for a number of uses. Their underwater cities employed hydrostatic fields to create large bubbles of atmosphere within which they dwell. Similarly, Gungan ground troops carried portable frames which generate a protective energy field capable of deflecting blaster fire. In large-scale combat, giant Gungan shield generators could create an immense umbrella of protective shield energy that could stop laser bolts and physical objects with great kinetic energy.

Despite mastering this bizarre technology, Gungans still employed beasts of burden for transportation. Their most common mount was the kaadu, a wingless reptavian which Gungans adorned with feathers and rode into combat. Other favored Gungan mounts included the large, stubborn falumpaset. For truly heavy loads, the Gungans domesticated the fambaa, a nine-meter tall, quadrupedal amphibian.

The Gungans maintained a large standing-armed force called the Gungan Grand Army. This huge collection of foot soldiers carried cestas, electropoles, and atlatls capable of hurling plasmic energy spheres (or boomers, as Gungans called them). Gungan catapults hurled even larger boomers over great distances.

The Gungans were ruled by a Boss and his Rep Council from the High Tower Board Room of Otoh Gunga. The Gungans had an uneasy relationship with the Naboo, the human colonists on the planet. Many Naboo looked down upon the Gungans, thinking them as primitive. The Gungans in turn tried to avoid any contact with the surface-dwellers.

Society and culture
Dress

Developing a spoken language called Gunganese, the Gungans began a long oral and written tradition early on in their history. Following the colonization of the planet by Humans, the Gungans adopted words and phrases from Galactic Standard Basic and eventually forgot the original form of the language. To decipher older texts, the Gungans were forced to used the Gung Slabs as a lexicon of letters and words. The later Gungan language was largely a pidgin dialect that most users fluent in Basic could understand. Utilizing their own unique phraseology, Gungans established a rather successful history of scholarly excellence, albeit unknown to the galaxy at large. Among their achievements include the epic poem Das Depu Epu Sea, or Deep Dark Water. This ode to the great waters of Naboo was a source of great pride to these noble beings. Naming conventions followed a standard form among the Gungan races. Otolla Gungans had a hyphenated first name followed by the family name. Ankura Gungans had a standard first name-last name convention seen across the galaxy.

The Gungans believed in a polytheistic religion with a large pantheon of gods, each with specific powers and responsibilities. The Gungans worshiped benevolent gods, such as the rain goddess Dobbis and the god of spring water Gobba. These gods were led by Oma-Oma, the creator of all life and the chief of Naboo's deities. Residing in the holy city of Ossorus, these gods acted in benevolent ways to aid the lives of the Gungans. Other gods, however, were conniving and malicious, such as Mekamok. Of all the Gungan pantheon, he was the only one who could escape control by Oma-Oma, leader of the gods. Associated with evil, destruction and discord, Mekamok was thought to be responsible for any mortal event or state of decadence that occurred on Naboo, and he held sway over lesser guds, including Balmtop, a god of disease and putrefaction. Despite his inherently evil nature, Mekamok resided in the mythical city of Ossorus like any other divinity, though his peers would shy him away at all costs. Nododo was an ancient trickster deity; despite his divine nature he would spend his time playing dirty tricks on mortals or even other gods. Along with Kobble the god of feasts and the god of games Wamka Pol, Nododo was one of the less serious Gungan deities. Mere mortals attaining deification were not unheard of: the divine lord of war Balam was originally the first Gungan warrior to whom the gods awarded the gift of immortality after his death. It was also said that, as a god, Balam created the hidden city of Otoh-D'in, a paradise hidden in the middle of the marshes, which hosts the souls of the bravest Gungan warriors. Legend added that if Ossorus was ever assaulted by the evil forces of Mekamok, Balam would lead the dead warriors of Otoh-D'in to defend the home of the gods. The Gungans thought that the ancient statues left by the vanished race of the Elders were icons representing the gods; sacred places in the Lianorm swamp or the Marian caves were originally built by the Elders and contained colossal stone heads that were reinterpreted in the light of the Gungan's beliefs. The Gungans also thought that the gods were behind the social institution of life debt and demanded that all such debts be repaid. The Gungans faith believed that the Force was the divine power of Oma-Oma, and those with a proclivity to manipulate its energy were priests and heralds of his divine message. A fanatical religious group of Gungans operating just south of the Gallo Mountains were known as Muskegs. These fanatics practiced ritual sacrifice and often instigated tribal clashes.

Having fought many clan wars early on in their history, the Gungans were militaristic, with their armies made up of male volunteers. Using a combination of military technology and beasts of burden, the the Grand Army formed at the peak of the War of the Gungan tribes when Boss Gallo united the Gungans to defeat the warlord Boss Rogoe. A united army throughout the 3000s BrS, the Grand Army continued to exist to defend their cities against the bursas, large and dangerous animals. When the Grand Army drove the bursas to extinction, the army disbanded yet drills continued as the militia patrolled the halls of their cities as security forces. Periodically, the army regrouped to defend the borders of Gungan territory from colonists and to assist in maintaining the secrecy of their aquatic cities. Gungans organized yearly the Festival of Warriors, in which Militiagungs gathered to celebrate the Gungan's militaristic culture. Festivities were held in a massive arena under the waters of Lake Umberbool.

The Gungans were technologically advanced, having developed a way to craft equipment engineered with organic matter. Hand-crafting their weapons and technology, the Gungans had mastered the mining of the planet's plasma core. Using the plasma to create hyper-static shield technology, they not only were able to craft powerful weapons, but to create underwater cities using hyper-static shields to hold back the water. Exporting this tech after their civilization entered galactic society, the Gungans gained massive trade deals with galactic manufacturing firms. The Gungans relied on the semi-sentient mollusk for storage of much of their knowledge on matters as varied as Gungan civilization and the fauna of Ohma-D'un. The Kresch was consulted by Gungans as an encyclopedia of sorts.

History
Evolving from the bipedal Glurrgs separately from the Zilkin species, the Gungans developed sentience during the 7,000s BrS. Surviving an ice age on Naboo by hunting the woolly veermoks that roamed Naboo's plains, the Gungans lived in mighty war tribes. These tribes fended off the threat of bursas that often attacked their settlements. Driving the bursas to extinction after the formation of a Grand Army, the Gungans survived the ice age and settled in the damp swamplands that bordered the deep lakes that formed in the old gorges of the world. In the swamps, the Gungans began to develop mining operations to harvest the plasma from the planet's core. Over the course of several centuries, the Gungans developed shield technology using plasma stretched between hyper-static conductor arms. This eventually was put to use to create massive cities beneath the lakes of the Naboo, fleeing the surface when the world was invaded by an extraterrestrial race known as the Serp from the. While the Serp eventually abandoned Naboo, the Gungans were forever changed by their interaction with the invaders, deifying them and worshiping at their abandoned cities.

During the 3,000s BrS, the tribes of Gungans warred relentlessly against one another, driving nearly all of the Ankura Gungans to extinction. Known as the War of the Gungan tribes, this war came to a head between the Ankura settlement Otoh Sancture and the warlord Boss Rogoe. Defending Otoh Sancture was Boss Gallo, a wealthy and powerful Ankura Gungan who refused to enter the war as a means of preserving his race's history. Ahead of the Sacred Feast of 3,024 BrS, Bass Gallo sought to procure food for the feast and was away from Otoh Sancture when it was attacked by bursas dispatched by Boss Rogoe and destroyed. Finding his subjects massacred, Gallo met with Captain Marsune at a small base north of the ruins and set about rebuilding Otoh Sancture several kilometers from the original settlement. Rebuilding his settlement in an area abundant in nova crystals, ore, food, and trees, which could be used as a source of carbon, as all four of these were necessary resources. After rebuilding Otoh Sancture and raising a small militia, he eliminated the bursas that had decimated the village and set out to bring Rogoe to justice. Visiting the city of Otoh Jahai first, Boss Gallo spoke with Boss Tenko and convinced him to join their Grand Army upon the return of the Sacred Staff, stolen by Otoh Langua. Meeting Boss Hantic of Otoh Langua, Gallo was told him the staff was not within the city but that he would join his cause with the promise of a thousand nova crystals. Locating the staff and a wealth of crystals, Gallo gained the support of Bosses Hantic and Tenko before leading his troops to Otoh Urs. Boss Copek joined the fight after Gallo eradicated the bursa clan threatening the city and Boss Hoxie of Otoh Raban joined after Gallo rescued him from captors. Taking the combined Grand Army to Boss Rogoe's city of Spearhead, Gallo raised spearhead and killed Rogoe. On the ruins of Spearhead, Gallo erected Otoh Gunga, a sanctuary for both Ankura and Otolla people.

Within the halls of Otoh Gunga beneath Lake Paonga, the Gungan High Council was formed, meeting regularly in the High Tower Boardroom to discuss the political atmosphere of the Gungan cities. The Gungans and the Human inhabitants of Naboo did not get along, as the Gungans believed the Naboo to be pompous cowards while the Naboo believed the Gungans to be barbarians. This attitude lasted until Queen Amidala united the Gungans and Naboo to fight the Trade Federation in a massive battle. Following the battle, the Gungans gained representation in the Galactic Senate through an Associate Planetary Representative that assisted the Chommell sector's Senator. Paving the way for the colonization of and, the Gungan culture spread out across the Naboo system, selling their hyperstatic bubble technology to conservation groups. When the Clone Wars erupted, the colony on Ohma-D'un was nearly wiped out by the release of swamp gas on the moon, but was rehabilitated after the end of the conflict.

Gungan Jedi
In the wake of the invasion of Naboo, the Order became aware of the Gungans and were able to identify two existing members as originating on Naboo. Having arrived on Coruscant after a slaving barge was captured by the Republic, Kin-Ya Dosun was raised in the Jedi arts and eventually took on Kin-Ya Dosun, the son of one of the other slaves. Having grown up without any knowledge of their homeworld, the Order was anxious to continue to study the Gungans and update their files in the Archives on Coruscant. Beginning to take on Gungan initiates, the Order found that many Gungans were drawn to the teachings of the Guardian school of Jedi training. Martial beings, many Gungan Jedi were fierce duelists and hand-to-hand combatants. Several Gungans also found great success as Consulars, finding their calling among the Order's scientists, researchers, and scholars metallurgists. Like all species which served in the Order, Gungans were represented in the Grand Temple on Ossus. Within the main entrance of the Temple, known as the Hall of Meditating Masters, a larger-than-life bronzium statue was erected in dedication to all Gungans who would serve. In the Sword of the Jedi tower, the lightsabers of all Jedi were placed in memory of fallen warriors and scholars alike. The Edifice of Heroes stood ready to adorn its halls with paintings, monuments, or holodepictions of all future Gungan Jedi.