Yuzzem

Hin and Kee, the two drunken Yuzzem who shared a cell with Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia in the Imperial mining colony on Mimban, are the reason most of the galaxy knows the species at all — towering, furred brutes jailed for wrecking a cantina after realizing they could not buy their way out of indentured servitude, who promptly tore through their captors and threw in with the Rebels. That first impression has stuck: Yuzzem are loud, strong, quick to anger, and far more loyal and principled than their reputation as tavern wreckers suggests.

A Yuzzem stands around two and a half meters and can run to 180 kilograms, with a heavily muscled upper body, long arms, and a thick coat of fur. The face is the giveaway — a long snout with a pair of tusks jutting up from the lower jaw and large black eyes set for low light, nothing like a Wookiee's flatter muzzle. Their hands end in claws they use both for climbing and for fighting, and they are strong and short-tempered enough that even seasoned slavers handled them warily. (Note: the SWURPG entry lists 2.0-2.4 meters and 110-140 kilograms, lighter and shorter than the sourced canon figures of roughly 2.5 meters and 180 kilograms.)

Their homeworld is Ragna III, a forested world in the Mid Rim. The combination of raw strength and obvious intelligence led many xenobiologists to guess the Yuzzem were distant cousins of the Wookiees, a comparison the Yuzzem neither confirm nor especially appreciate. Generations of off-world slavery eroded much of what the species once knew about itself, and scholars have since gone hunting for surviving artifacts in an effort to reconstruct a culture that was nearly worked out of existence.

What survived that erosion is a code. Like Wookiees, Yuzzem live by strict rules of honor and debt: a debt owed gets repaid, whether that means standing by someone who once stood by them or hunting down whoever wronged them. The popular picture of the Yuzzem as a loud, violent oaf misses the rest of it — they have a stubborn sense of fair play and a generous streak, and they can be unexpectedly cunning when a situation calls for more than muscle. The Empire learned this the expensive way, enslaving Yuzzem for heavy labor in its mines and then discovering that their strength and foul tempers made them nearly impossible to keep in line. Yuzzem revolts against their Imperial masters were frequent and bloody, claws and tusks included.

Hin and Kee carried that code to its end. After escaping the Mimban jail they reclaimed their confiscated weapons and went on a rampage against the Imperials, then raced the heroes to the Temple of Pomojema ahead of Darth Vader. (In Legends, both were cut down there by Vader; Hin, already mortally wounded, dragged himself back one last time to lift a collapsed slab off Luke's pinned leg before he died.) That moment — a dying alien spending his last strength to save a friend he had known for days — is the truest summary of the species the records contain. (Assumption: Yuzzem are a Legends-only species, introduced in Alan Dean Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye in 1978; the SWURPG catalog admits Legends material as valid source.)

For a SWURPG character, the Yuzzem is a front-line bruiser built around protecting the people they have chosen. The STR +4 and the proficiencies in Athletics and Intimidation point straight at it, and Intimidating Bulk leans on that frame; the INT -2 and CHA -2 are the flip side of the reputation, a being who solves problems with hands and presence rather than wordcraft. Yuzzem Claws give you a natural weapon that cannot be disarmed, Expert Climber turns any forest or hull into open ground, and Fierce Selflessness in Battle lets you throw yourself in front of an ally's wound — the honor-bond made mechanical. Intense Rebellion Against Injustice and Susceptibility to Overindulgence round out the temperament: a fighter who cannot walk past cruelty and cannot leave the bar early. Play one as a freed slave hunting the people who sold their family, a mercenary bound for life to the organic who once spared theirs, or a sentimental drunk whose loyalty is worth more than any contract.

Yuzzem are large, heavily-built furred humanoids standing between 2.0 and 2.4 meters tall. Their body plan is gorilla-like — broad chest, massive shoulders, long arms ending in four-fingered clawed hands, digitigrade rear-leg stance. Their fur is dense and water-shedding, in tones of rich brown, deep black, and rarer silvery-grey; some individuals display white facial markings around the snout and eyes. They are distinctly snouted, with prominent canine teeth visible when the mouth is open, and large dark eyes well-adapted to low-light environments. Their physical strength is exceptional — adult Yuzzem can carry creatures of equal or greater size short distances without strain, and their grip strength is sufficient to crush small starship components.

Distinguishing features from Wookiees: shorter average height (2.0-2.4 m vs Wookiee 2.0-2.3 m, but heavier-built within that range), pronounced snouts (Wookiees are more dog-faced), heavier shoulders and chest, less specialized for wroshyr-style canopy travel. Yuzzem fur tends slightly shorter and stiffer than Wookiee fur, with less of the silken texture Wookiee fur is famous for. Many galactic citizens unfamiliar with both species mistake one for the other; both species find this insulting for the same reasons humans find being mistaken for chimpanzees insulting.

At their core, Yuzzem are loyal, gregarious, honor-coded, and dangerously prone to overindulgence. They form intense bonds with those they consider honor-kin and will defend those bonds with their lives — the Fierce Selflessness in Battle trait is a mechanical reflection of this cultural value. They are loud, sentimental drunks, prone to crying at strangers' kindnesses and singing inappropriately during serious moments. They are also genuinely dangerous when provoked: a Yuzzem who has declared an honor-debt against a creature will pursue that creature for years, often across multiple sectors.

The species' relationship to off-world civilization is complicated by a long history of slavery. During the late Republic and early Imperial eras, Yuzzem were captured in significant numbers and put to work in galactic-corporate facilities, where they were valued for their physical strength and ignored as people. Post-Imperial liberation efforts have returned some Yuzzem to Ragna III, but many remain off-world — some integrated into mercenary cultures, some still seeking lost family, some hunting honor-debts against the corporate executives and slaver intermediaries who exploited their people. A Yuzzem PC may carry any of these threads.

In adventuring contexts, Yuzzem make natural front-line fighters, bodyguards, and bond-kin protectors. Their combination of high STR, natural claws, climbing speed, and the Reaction redirect makes them mechanically the 'tank that picks who gets hit.' Roleplay-wise, they fit Soldier, Vanguard, Scoundrel, and Bounty Hunter classes well; their susceptibility to overindulgence creates natural roleplay drama in social scenes; their honor-debt mechanic creates long-running campaign threads the GM can return to repeatedly.