The Aqualish were a humanoid species from the planet Ando. They have some superficial properties from some aquatic species, like from the walrus, that is why they are often called as walrusman, but they have some arachnid features, too. The Aqualish can be found all over the galaxy. They have hair-lined faces with large eyes and their mouths are pretty like a spider like tusks. The Aqualish had a reputation for being a nasty, a crude and an aggressive species. Of course it was partly their fate, they had not got too much possibilities, or a chance to become better, anyway, the Aqualish children usually chose their profession from the traditional Aqualish jobs. So if somebody asked one what he/she wanna select as a job if she/he grew up, the answer was very mercenary, bounty hunter or pirate. :-) . One of the most infamous Aqualish was the smuggler Ponda Baba, who intimidated Luke Skywalker in the cantina in the New Hope, and the other famous Aqualish was Grunda Dolma, who had a short role in the Clone Wars cartoon, like an interesting female gladiator, we saw her when Asajj Ventress defeated all of the gladiators to gain the respect of Count Dooku.

A funny KotOR2 episode will help us to take a deeper insight into the Aqualish mentality, when the Exile Jedi met Margar in front of the Iziz Airport, and had this short conversation.

Exile Jedi: "An Aqualish merchant? Shouldn't you be roughing up some Bith for credits?"

Margar: "Not all Aqualish are like that; besides, Bith are hard to come by."

There are three types of Aqualish: the Aquala, the Ualaq (who were the result of genetic mutation), and the Quara, they were distinguished by their hands and eyes. Aquala had finned hands, while the Ualaq and Quara had clawed, fingered hands. The fingered Aqualish also varied in the number of eyes, while the Quara, and the Aquala had two eyes, the less-common Ualaq had four. While most Ualaq and Quara had claw-like hands with five fingers, some Ualaq had three-fingered hands with very thick digits. Though Ualaq and Quara only made up about ten percent of the Aqualish population, their fingered hands made them more comfortable with technology, so they developed faster. Thus, they were the subspecies more commonly found off-world. Because the Aquala saw the Quara as responsible for the image the Aqualish had on the galaxy as thugs, (you can read my thug2 article) they didn't really liked each other.

All three Aqualish subspecies spoke mutually intelligible dialects of the same language. Despite this, the connection between the three groups was problematic, because all three subspecies considered themselves the superior breed. One of the largest and most destructive memento of their conflicts was the Aqualish Civil War. This war was initially started by the Aquala, who blamed the Quara and Ualaq for the declining harvests of fish. The war did not end until explorers arrived on Ando. The races of Ando united to destroy the "invaders". The Aqualish were backward in technologies, they wasn't able to travel in the space so far, but they shot down some hostile spacecrafts, examined their technologies, and learned the secret of space travel from them. Guess what they did with the new technology? Yeah, you are right. Bloody wars with their neighbors! The Aqualish forces set forth, beginning a series of bloody conflicts with a nearby sister world. They continued on a campaign of conquest, sparking a war between the Aqualish and the Old Republic. Of course the Old Republic quickly crushed them, mainly because of the inferior Aqualish weaponry, limited to what they could scavenge from defeated enemies. The Old Republic carefully dismantled the Aqualish armies to avoid further conflicts ... for a while.

Because in the Republic era the Aqualish became stronger again, set up, and colonized fifteen Mid Rim worlds that later formed the Andoan Free Colonies. Quite weird, isn't it? Don't ask me how could be a colony free, that is a kinda Aqualish thinking. :-) During the Clone Wars Andoan senator Po Nudo seceded from the Republic, bringing his people and worlds into the Confederacy of Independent Systems, making an alliance with Count Dooku. Po Nudo was probably surprised, when the Andoan Free Colonies refused to join the CIS, the colonies stated their independence, and sided with the Republic.


We will also meet Aqualish creatures in the KotOR games quite frequently. Both the KotOR1 and the KotOR2 games tried to give such roles to Aqualish creatures, that was illustrated above. For example this Aqualish is very probably likes to drink alcohols like Ponda Baba did, and enjoys spending his time in the cantina or in the hunter's lodge, where he can tease the other patrons, play gambling games, and of course drink, drink, and drink. This one probably has drunk so much, that he can not even move, just sits there, and stares ahead. We can meet him in the Tatooine hunter's lodge.


Other Aqualish creatures often took service with a warlord, as a mercenary. These ones are serving Calo Nord, and have done many cruel things before they met Revan, who sliced this whole company into tiny peaces with precise and accurate swishes. We can see some other Aqualish thugs in the second screenshot. We can meet them down at Lower-Taris, in KotOR1. According to the story there were two rival gangs down there, who were fighting for the dominance, the Black Vulkars, and the Hidden Beks. As I remember both rival gangs had some Aqualish thugs. The one, who is walking by Revan in the Hidden Bekk base is a Hidden Bek band member, and serving Gadon Thek. In the other screenshot, that was I think a Vulkar thug, who was demanding some money from this citizen.


This next Aqualish in KotOR2 decided to join the Sith. That will rule! He only gotta do cruel things, kill people, fight, and hurt others, and he is good at it genetically. But the Sith just laugh at them, and have them stand in front of the Sith Academy without any foods or drinks, so they could prove their grim determination with the deprivation. But they don't want to let them in non the less, no matter these three was standing there for three days, the Sith don't give them even the hope of entering the Academy.


This last Aqualish tries to work something, but just he would not have done that! He was employed as a dock man, harbor worker in the Tatooine Airport. He is either drunk or does not care about his duties, and often makes mistakes. He hazes us, too. He confuse the paperwork, and load up a few containers of gizka into the Ebon Hawk, and leaves the plot. This is how he generates the Gizka Quest, which makes the gamer to find a solution how to get rid of those many gizkas, who get loose on the board, jumping all around the floor, so the crew members wont be able to make a step because of the small animals.

There was a very good example for the Aqualish jobs in the Clone Wars animated film! An Aqualish served the Neimodian Lok Durd as a gunner, and follows him in this picture right beside him. The separatist general and inventor had invented a new rocket bomb, which can make a catastrophic destruction within the radius of the impact, which kills all living matter, and leaves the droids unharmed. The Aqualish gunner only has to push the fire button, after selecting a good target with full of living beings, and thousands will die immediately, and he gets a good salary for that! Cool! That is a job he always wanted, and he is happy to be there, as an executioner.