Vuul

The Vuuls (//, singular "Vuul") were a sentient species from Yin in the Unknown Regions.

Biology and appearance
Though mostly humanoid, the Vuuls had several distinct physical features which clearly differentiated them from Humans or other humanoid species. The most easily noticeable was their four eyes. In addition to having two eyes on their faces in relatively the same location as Humans, Duros, and other humanoids, they had an additional pair of eyes located slightly above the first pair and closer to the temples. This gave the Vuuls greater peripheral vision than most humanoids, roughly 230 degrees.

Vuuls also had hairless heads, their crania marked with distinctive bulges created by tissue buildup between the skull and scalp. These tissue pockets were actually extrasensory organs, which afforded the Vuuls a limited perception of their environments, mostly based around the detection of vibration. Scientists of the Golden Empire categorized it as a form of echolocation, albeit one which was permanently "on". Head trauma could impair this extra sense, or cause mistaken perceptions similar to visual hallucinations.

With rare exceptions, Vuuls had very pale skin; while not quite as white as Arkanian Offshoots or Nagai, they nonetheless appeared sickly pale to most Humans, their skin a combination of white and strained yellow. Those with different colors tended toward beige and khaki colorations which, while still appearing pale to other humanoids, were regarded as dark by the Vuuls themselves.

Female Vuuls carried their children (usually twins, though more or fewer occurred occasionally) for ten standard months before giving birth to their younglings live. Vuuls reached physical maturity around the age of seventeen.

Society and culture
Taciturn and stoic by nature, the Vuuls were consummate strategists who liked to plan things far in advance. They rarely acted rashly, almost always with great calculation, and correspondingly their plans usually met with success unless countered by a Vuul who had planned better. Warfare among Vuuls was usually planned years or even decades in advance; if one side was not expecting attack by the other, a concerted military campaign could level an entire country in weeks. By contrast, the Vuuls themselves could be defeated by quickly changing tactics; the senior officers of other species of the Glorious Armada of the Golden Empire considered Vuuls to be exceptional big-picture strategists, but subpar single-battle commanders (at best).

Though national (and later species) service was a virtue many Vuuls took to heart, it was counterbalanced by a desire for personal success and advancement as well. Vuul children were raised to find jobs which would allow them to advance their station in life while also doing something they enjoyed, but the former was given precedence over the latter.

The Vuul language was called Aado.

History
Scientists both in the Golden Empire and among the Vuuls themselves theorized that the Vuuls evolved their trademark cautious examination and penchant for planning due to their extra perceptions. The ability to perceive their surroundings with enhanced sight and vibration, along with taste, smell, touch, and hearing, allowed them to plan more carefully before moving and avoid predators or other environmental hazards. Even after evolving sentience, inventing tools, and making themselves the apex predators on Yin, they remained careful and considerate of all options.

The unification of Vuul states into progressively larger countries was laboriously slow, less because of cultural differences than because of the intense planning put into either diplomacy or war. In 122 BBY, when Iscali explorers located Yin, the Vuuls had consolidated themselves into six large countries. They had developed space technology which allowed short-range exploration of Yin's space and its three moons, but were impressed by the hyperspace technology of the Iscali. Rather than compete for trading opportunities, the Vuuls took only a (relatively) short sixteen years to combine their six countries into two large ones; these two remained stubbornly opposed to unification, though ambitious politicians would occasionally propose twenty-five-year joining proposals.

In 95 ABY, using the navigational charts of her newly acquired Iscali citizens, Rin Sakaros led her Golden Empire to Yin and invited the Vuuls to join her government. Sensing that decades would be wasted on discussion and analysis of every possible aspect of the idea, Rin employed her telepathic abilities to share her thoughts clearly with each Vuul decision maker, as well as extracting the Vuuls' thoughts and passing them from mind-to-mind. Able to see one anothers' views more clearly, and more than slightly startled and intimidated by Rin's power, the Vuuls agreed to join the Empire in an unheard-of seven months.

When the Great Liberation erupted, Rin took several Vuul military leaders as strategic advisors to help her plan the long view of battle against the Tetrarchy of Mezlagob, usually resorting to reading their thoughts rather than taking days or weeks to let them form perfect analyses. After the war ended, many Vuuls continued to volunteer for various government offices, and several found success in the Ministries of Diplomacy and Internal Affairs and Integration.

In the galaxy
The best-known Vuul in the Golden Empire was the Centurion Eskol Kaartinen, the second Prefect of the Order of Keltrayu.

Appearances

 * The Fall of Keltrayu