The first
time we encountered the Tuskens was in Episode 4 when Luke Skywalker was attacked by them while searching for R2-D2. Then they appeared in
Episode 1 during the podrace scenes, then in Episode 2, when they kidnapped Anakin's mother. Far the
most serious of the film appearances is the Episode 2 scene, however, the Tuskens remained episodists in the movies, some mysterious humanoid creatures, "sand people" that we didn't know much about.
Then the
world of games filled the space
around the race with life, giving them society, stories, and famous individuals. The Phantom Menace game, Force Commander, Galactic Battlegrounds, the Jedi Academy game, the Battlefront series, the Kotor series, the Obi-wan game, Empire at War, or TOR have all used the tuskens, giving them more and more information speading their worlds, the things we can learn about them.
We
had a chance to get to know their weapons, which I described here on the site earlier, melee-gaffi-infantry, rifle-sniper infantry, bantha riflemen (quasi-cavalry or mounted units). We've seen their tent camps, and we can get into one of these camps in the Kotor 1 game. And there we first met the Tusken war chief, or chieftain.
In 3956 BBY, Revan and the crew of the Ebon Hawk arrived on the desert world of Tattoine in search of the Rakatan Star Map located there. When he and his party stole into the Sand Peoples' enclave wearing robes taken from a dead ambush party, ostensibly on a mission for Czerka Corporation to destroy the Sand People, they were able to meet with the chieftain and discuss terms for a cessation of hostilities, thanks to
HK-47's translation abilities. Surprisingly, we will learn that Tuskens are not as barbaric as they were painted so far. Indigenous people, but they are increasingly losing ground against intruders, such as Czerka, miners, and hunters who are beginning to make their lives impossible to maintain. It turns out that they are fighting for their lives for their survival. They will slowly die of thirst as they get deeper in the desert. They need water. Urgently. They need vaporizers.
In exchange for providing the tribe with moisture vaporators so that they could build up supplies of water, the chieftain agreed to move the tribe further away from the settlement and reduce their attacks on miners. Revan asked for the attacks to stop completely, but the chieftain said it would never happen because outsiders were constantly desecrating their customs and they needed to respond accordingly. Revan agreed to the deal and promised to give him the vaporators. The chieftain said he would wait but he did not believe the Jedi would return.
When Revan unexpectedly return with the vaporators, the chieftain then agreed to release a trio of captive Jawas in addition to
Griff, the elder brother of Twi'lek party member Mission Vao. Though the Chieftain stated he still did not trust Revan, the Chief presented his gaffi stick to the Jedi as a gesture of good faith. Eventually, the chieftain led his people to another part of Tatooine.
In one alternate ending, that I have never tried, just read about, if Revan talks to the chieftain about their history he can learn that there is one storyteller in the village. You must first prove yourself as a warrior and kill a krayt dragon and bring back the pearl, and you will gain access to the Storyteller. There you can learn the mysterious history of the sand people. If you're not careful asking questions despite HK-47's warnings the whole tribe may attack
The chieftain allows Revan and his party to free Griff Vao and the imprisoned Jawas in exchange for a krayt dragon pearl, also he is said to be willing to trade it for his gaderffii stick. However I think it does not worth it, because te pearl can be a great lightsaber chrystal later on.
Thereis a dark side ending too, Revan somehow gives the Sand People cause to attack him, thus resulting his party killing the entire Sand People tribe.
Though it is not always dark sided. If Revan talks to him without HK-47 he will attack.
If the player uses HK-47 to negotiate peacefully they can still have the Chieftain and his tribe attack Revan if the player attempts to open any of the containers in the Enclave.
Of course, it is logical which one of us would be pleased to let someone into his home, who would start to search everything, open everything, and pack everything that could be moved in front of his eyes, practically sacking him. In the DS game, the Tusken Chieftain's dress and gaffi can be obtained from his corpse, which can be sold for good money to Czerka. They are a bit bigger and better than an average tusken stuff or gaffi, typically the chief has better stuff. The color of his dress is also a bit different.
But the color and
shape of their outfit, the details of the tuskens in the TOR game will be the most beautiful and the most special. When my friend invited me in 2013 and showed this game, with
these new worlds, colors, characters, beautifully landscapes, I barely got air. He told me that if I were immersed in the TOR world, I would surely have something to customize, so many new beautiful things in it. He got on his swoop bike and guided me into the dunes, in the Tusken village with his Sentinel Jedi character, called Brythili. Their tent camps are
protected against nosy eyes and windstorms by stretching tents. Occasionally, the local wild life appears, either in the form of a
womp rat or a reptile similar to a krayt dragon. My friend took me to the Sarlacc's pit, then back to the village, and we found all the places where there were tuskens. Initially Tuskens are relatively peaceful in TOR too, they walking around, they do their job, but they attack immediately after aggression. It is incredible how interesting new
skins (clothes, appearances) they have! The chieftain has the most adorable outfit, but the average tusken also better than ever before, anywhere! The Chieftain's clothing color became black, only a tiny little piece of the old sand-colored material was left behind on his battle skirt. The other are finer materials, in fact, some elements of his
clothings are some of Krayt dragon's carcass. It is much more delicate the details of his ammo belts. In addition, the tusken is protected by armor pieces, mostly on the upper body, on the shoulders, and upper chest area. Their weapons are fine pieces, from the gaderffiis to rifles. There are new classes, such as the marauder, the fiend, or the raider, which differs from the word usually used the tusken raiders such as the loot and rob people, here as a synonym for
attacker, assaulter, aggressor attacking melee unit. Later, we could learn about the shaman who is the magician of the tribe, the grassmen/healer, the chronicles/storyteller, the women and the children, so the tusken image of the original gaffi shaker barbarian is nicely shaded, practically we got a complex little society over the years, which is led by their chief, the tusken chieftain.
***
Take a look at my custom
Tusken
Chieftain figure! This is one of my
favorite custom figures, despite
of he was not a protagonist. I custom made it right after my visit at one of my
friends, where we played TOR and inspected this new Tusken skin. I do not
have a TOR section, but I do have a KotOR section, where we first met a Tusken
chief, the two games are close relatives, so I put the figure into the Kotor
main section. Since the tusken chieftain was either wondering up and down, or
attacked us, we had to kill him to make him stay still, so to be able to examine
his outfit, and to make these screeshots.
Custom Tusken Chieftain figure front
Custom Tusken Chieftain figure back
Tusken village diorama (a part of a larger Tatooine
scene)
Thanks for visiting
CustomStarWars. Visit back ASAP!
written by: Norbert Rostas
2019.05.18. the figure was made years before