The Duloks were a sentient species native to the Forest Moon of Endor. Unlike their distant relatives, the Ewoks, they were tall and lanky with long ears, sharp teeth, and eyes that ranged in color from white to red. Duloks were covered in fur that came in dull shades of brown, gray, and green; the coat was of a uniform length except for tufts at the top of the head and the tip of the tail, as well as manes and beards in some individuals. Duloks typically wore little more than bone and feather decorations, and they burnt, carved, or painted symbols on their fur. Members of the species were often unkempt and infested with insects. The Duloks were capable of communicating with the Ewoks through that species' language, Ewokese.
Duloks tended to live in swampy regions on the Forest Moon. Their villages were made up of rotting logs and dark caverns, which they furnished with structures of bone, mud, skin, and wood. The species was divided into clans and tribes headed by a chief or king. The strongest Dulok present usually assumed this role and ruled by cowing the others into doing his bidding. Females were generally expected to do little more than bear pups, clean house, and cook food—including a stew called glock and prey such as Wisties and woklings. Duloks were religious, so some power fell to shamans and other mystics. Some Dulok religious leaders had the ability to use the Force via totem magic, and many of these succumbed to the temptations of the dark side. The Duloks worshipped a deity known as the Night Spirit.
In contrast to the Ewoks, Duloks had a reputation as greedy, foul-tempered barbarians. Their culture was aggressive and warlike. They were rapacious hunters, and they made frequent raids on nearby settlements, armed with spears, axes, and other simple implements. Despite acknowledging kinship with the Ewoks, Dulok bands were particularly keen to conquer Ewok villages and thus posed a major threat to some Ewok tribes. A gang of Duloks under King Vulgarr menaced the Ewok tribe of Bright Tree Village in the years of the Ewok Teebo's youth, and another tribe, led by King Gorneesh, came into frequent conflict with those same Ewoks. Some Duloks had an uneasy alliance with Morag, the Tulgah witch, to further their designs on Ewok holdings. After Morag's death in 3 ABY, the Duloks of Gorneesh's band had to contend with a new threat: the Galactic Empire. The Imperials demolished the Dulok Swamp and enslaved many members of Gorneesh's tribe as part of their efforts to build a shield bunker that could protect the Empire's Death Star battlestation orbiting the moon. The Dulok captives were freed when the Bright Tree Ewoks intervened, but not before many of them were killed by a beast known as the Griagh, which had been awakened by the Empire's destruction.
Biology and appearanceEdit
- «They are scaly, bony lizards. They have big ears and small brains. My homeworld does not miss their kind when they die.»
Duloks were sentient bipedal mammals adapted to the swamps of Endor's forest moon. Gangly beings, they stood from 1.2 to 1.5 meters tall. Sharp claws poked from their four-fingered hands and three-toed feet. Some groups had thin, expressive, tufted tails. They were vertebrates, with a full skeleton, including a long-faced skull, spine, clavicles, ribs, breastbone, arm and leg bones, pelvis, and tail bones. Duloks had red blood. They were excellent climbers.
Members of the species were covered in dull-looking fur. Most commonly, this was green, but shades of blue-gray, gray, and brown were not unheard of, and many individuals displayed markings of a different color from the main coat. For example, most members of a tribe that lived in a swamp near the Ewoks of Bright Tree Village had green body fur with gray lips, brown eyebrows, and a gray mask around the eyes, while other members had brown ears and brows, and gray mustaches instead. Most of a Dulok's fur was relatively uniform in length except for a longer shock atop the head. However, some Duloks sported tufts of longer hair, often of a different shade from the main coat. Examples included a mane around the shoulders, bushy beards, and unruly coiffures. The tip of the nose and soles of the feet were the only naturally hairless portions of the Dulok anatomy; skin color varied from gray to light to dark pink and was often blotched by another tone. The species had two sexes, male and female.
The features of a Dulok's broad face were screwed up into a constant scowl. A full set of teeth filled the mouth, and the two sharp canines jutted from the prognathic lower jaw. Small, round eyes squinted from below downcast brows. These orbs sometimes appeared a single shade of pink, red, yellow, orange, or white, but in some Duloks, the sclera was of a different color, such as yellow. Dulok eyes were sensitive to bright light, but in low-light conditions, their pupils narrowed to vertical slits. The hairless Dulok nose was either black, gray, or green. Two long, floppy ears protruded or drooped from the sides of the head and tapered to either tufts of hair or pointy tips. The concave surface of each ear faced forward; in some Duloks it had a lighter color than the back of the ear.
While they groomed themselves using the materials available to them—such as a multi-legged creature used as a sponge and stolen Ewok soap— Duloks had a hard time keeping clean. As a result, their fur often became mangy, unkempt, foul smelling, and infested with parasitic insects. Despite this paucity of hygiene, some Dulok ancients lived to a prodigious age: the Dulok shaman Umwak claimed that his uncle Murgoob had seen more than 600 seasons in 3 ABY.
Society and cultureEdit
- «How can we get the sun crystal, King Gorneesh?»
«Don't be foolish! We get it like the Duloks get anything . . . We steal it!»
- ―A Dulok warrior asks King Gorneesh about Dulok strategy[src]
Although Ewoks and Duloks spoke mutually intelligible dialects and acknowledged a common heritage, their interactions were seldom cordial. The Duloks hated and envied the Ewoks for enjoying what the Duloks saw as the better lifestyle in the bountiful forests. They reserved a litany of insults for their cousins: furball, fuzzy imp, puffball, runt, tree rat, and—for the woklings—brat and brawling. Duloks typically had short, one-word names; examples included Boogutt, Gorneesh, Murgoob, Ulgo, Umwak, Urgah, and Vulgarr.
Meanwhile, most Ewoks saw Duloks as fierce, rival warriors at best; stupid, ill-mannered barbarians at worst. Dulok brain was an Ewok insult, and some Ewoks referred to their cousins as "scaly, bony lizards" with big ears. Although most Ewoks respected their cousins as fellow children of the Forest Moon, a host of Ewok taboos and folk beliefs surrounded the marsh-dwelling species, and few Ewoks mourned a Dulok's death. Ewoks agreed on one point: Duloks were creatures best avoided.
Duloks were rare; fewer than one percent of the Forest Moon's sentient inhabitants belonged to the species. These were divided into scattered clans and tribes with names such as Donkuwah, Korga, and Pubam. Most groups eked out a living in Endor's marshlands, based in villages of caves, logs, and stumps, although some bands settled in dry areas, rocky terrain and subterranean complexes. Families lived in caverns and mud huts surrounding the throne of the village ruler or an altar to Dulok gods. The throne of one Dulok king, Gorneesh, was made from a tree stump under piles of animal skins and bones.
- «Away with you! This is no rest perch for fuzzy imps. You trespass on the veranda of King Ulgo the Magnificent. Away! Away!»
With the exception of utilitarian items such as cloth diapers for the young and eye patches for the maimed, Duloks wore clothing to denote status rather than hide nudity or provide warmth. Common adornments included earrings, hair ornaments, and necklaces of bone, feather, and horn; and pieces of cloth wrapped about the body. Duloks often bound their ears and hair with cord; the hair of the head, jowls, and chin were sometimes adorned in this way. Fur modifications—branding, painting, and shaving—signified status and tribal affiliation. Pigments for fur coloring included blue, yellow, and red. Similarly, a few Duloks carved tribal markings into their lower canines. Some members of the species wore leather pouches in which to carry their belongings.
Bigger, more aggressive Duloks bullied and cowed their way up the social ladder. Individuals signified their place in the pecking order via jewelry, and symbols and designs on their teeth and fur. Dulok bullying was often verbal in nature; popular Dulok insults included churpo, dolt, and roothead.
A chief or king headed each tribe. The position theoretically passed from father to son, but just as often, insurrection and regicide brought a new leader to power. The Dulok ruler Vulgarr usurped the throne of another, Ulgo, in this way, for example, only to be the target of a coup attempt himself. Many Dulok kings kept a retinue of loyal bodyguards to shield them from such challenges. Dulok rulers were prone to bombast, claiming, for instance, to be the king of all Duloks and assuming epithets such as "the magnificent" and "the all powerful." Tribes with weak rulers were prone to constant in-fighting and arguments.
Male Duloks served in various capacities. A medicine man or shaman advised the ruler and tended to the infirm. Other Duloks acted as laborers, scouts, and warriors. In some groups, high-ranking fighters took the title battlelord. More seasoned members of the group were regarded as elders. Duloks banished from their home became outcasts, forced into a life of solitary banditry and scavenging. The Dulok Ulgo lived in this way after being deposed by Vulgarr. Dulok slaves populated the bottom of the social hierarchy.
Duloks practiced monogamous marriage. The males could be doting husbands, spouting sweet nothings such as swampbunny to their beloved. Still, women enjoyed little status. They were primarily expected to bear and raise children and to take part in certain ceremonies, and even a Dulok queen could be assigned cooking duty. Nevertheless, females were generally brighter than males. Some managed to claw their way into posts as scouts, a vocation for which they routinely outperformed their male counterparts, or as shamans or warriors. Women could exert influence behind the scenes; Queen Urgah sometimes browbeat King Gorneesh into acquiescing to her demands, for example. Dulok young were known as cubs, pups, or brats. Although caring for them was a chore often hoisted off to slaves, Duloks could be devoted parents. Gorneesh even formed a brief alliance with his enemies, the Ewoks of Bright Tree Village, when his son, Boogutt, went missing.
- «Behold the picnic of a lifetime. We'll have them fried and frizzled and braised and sizzled, stewed and simmered and grilled.»
- ―Vulgarr, on woklings[src]
Duloks were omnivores. Many tribes sustained themselves by scavenging for swamp fodder, such as berries and insects. Meat, crops, and booty supplemented such staples. Hunting parties ranged throughout the swamp and into Endor's woods and plains. The Ewoks particularly disdained Dulok hunting practices, accusing their cousins of taking sadistic glee in the misery of their quarries, for trophy hunting, and for valuing sport over sustenance. The Duloks' tastes in meat did not endear them to their relatives, either: they had no qualms about eating anything from lantern birds—considered sacred to the Ewoks—to sentient Wisties and even woklings.
Although Duloks practiced small-scale agriculture, they were fair-weather farmers at best. In some years, Dulok groups completely neglected to plant crops at all. Instead, a much more tempting target was to steal the harvest of nearby Ewoks. The species highly valued Ewok food, especially delicacies like pies. One native Dulok dish was a thick stew called glock.
Trade and technologyEdit
- «Wah, hah! Vulgarr is a moon-headed fool. I once traded him two scrawny birds for this fine fur vest.»
Dulok populations traded with one another and with groups of other species. Nevertheless, a reputation for duplicity kept many partners from fully trusting them. Dulok merchants traveled to the Gupins' volcanic home in the grasslands east of Endor's Great Forest, and Jindas played for the Duloks of Gorneesh's tribe, although they found their audience aggressive, boorish and lewd. The two-headed Gonster had dealings with members of the species, and Morag, the Tulgah witch, traded the occasional favor and threats of magical retaliation for Dulok support in her schemes. Slaves of many species, including Ewoks and other Duloks, were the main commodity of exchange between Dulok groups, although they also traded crafts, such as Ewok-fur clothing, and game, such as lantern birds.
Duloks made stone-age tools and crafts from bone, fur, leather, rock, and wood. In addition to mundane items like tables, they employed an arsenal of spears, stone axes and knives, wooden clubs, catapults, and grappling hooks. Shamans often knew arcane formulae by which they could create things such as smoke powder and "special glasses" designed to show the way through confusing terrain. While Duloks did not employ hang gliders to take to the air, they did build boats and battleships for use in river raids.
Duloks often set traps and snares that incorporated cages, nets, ropes, poles, and stones. These were used to stop intruders, trap game, and capture slaves. Captives were wheeled about in cage wagons cobbled together from sticks and skins until they could be eaten, ransomed, or put to other use. Dulok clothing was made from woven cloth, skins, and furs—including that of Ewoks. Their medicine was sophisticated enough to treat severe wounds.
Raiding and warEdit
- «Get 'em! Stomp 'em! Smash 'em!»
- ―A Dulok battle cry[src]
While they rarely showed the pluck and flair so often attributed to their forest cousins, Duloks excelled at fighting, raiding, and stealing. The dearth of resources in their swamp habitat gave then little choice, and a preference for idleness to backbreaking labor and their might-makes-right culture both added to the appeal of such behavior. Scouts were tasked with finding choice targets and opportune times to strike. Still, Duloks preferred to avoid confrontation; much better to sneak into rival territory and steal undetected or to hoodwink their targets to Dulok ends. The shaman Umwak, for example, often disguised himself to fool the Ewoks of Bright Tree Village, and Vulgarr's band of Duloks used a giant, foot-shaped stone to make prints they later blamed on a large creature supposedly menacing the area. Dulok ruses sometimes hinged on bamboozling more naive marks like giant Phlogs to unwittingly do their dirty work. Some Dulok bands ranged several days from their home, basing themselves in camps while away. Ewok villages fielded scouts of their own to watch out for such bandits.
When numbers were in their favor, however, Duloks grew bold. Their targets including Jindas and Sanyassan Marauders, but they particularly found their diminutive Ewok brethren easier prey—and Ewok food and handicrafts their most tempting prizes. Ewok lore told of Dulok raiders driving Ewoks away and taking over entire villages. Some Ewok tribes settled their villages in more inaccessible areas, such as in the middle of lakes, to avoid Dulok raiders. Duloks themselves had to contend with the vroom-riding Pugs.
A raid might have begun with a war dance around a village bonfire. Then the chief or king personally might have led the charge. If their target was an Ewok tree village, the raiders climbed straight up using vines or grappling hooks, or scaled nearby trees and swung in on vines. Dulok warriors attacked with whoops, hollers, and battle cries. They could be fierce combatants; even with more advanced weaponry, the Marauders only kept them at bay through the battle strategies of General Yavid. Despite the threat they posed, Ewoks saw Duloks as fellow creatures of the forest and killed them only with reluctance. Some Ewoks, such as Graak of Bright Tree Village, became specialists in anti-Dulok tactics.
Duloks followed victorious attacks with revelrous indulgence in their booty back at the village. Many Dulok raids failed due to poor planning, inept execution, or unforeseen complications. Others ended once the targets managed to rally reinforcements; even versus the smaller Ewoks, Duloks preferred flight to fight when outnumbered. Failed raiders could do little but bandage their wounded and plot their next incursion.
- «Soon, all Endor will be ruled by the Night Spirit and its most devoted fan: Me!»
Duloks were superstitious creatures. According to their mythology, the woodland deities had forsaken them to their wretched swamps and allowed the hated Ewoks dominion over the forests. Duloks acknowledged the power of the natural entities sacred to the Ewoks, such as the Soul Trees and Tree of Light, but the Duloks desired to destroy, rather than worship, them. They feared the Ewok Asha, whom they considered a ferocious forest spirit, and they believed the Ewoks to consort with foul demons; Gorneesh's tribe mistook the droid C-3PO for such an abomination in 3 ABY. Instead, the Duloks worshipped—and feared—a divinity known as the Night Spirit.
Those Duloks thought able to consult with spirits could obtain high rank. Most groups had a medicine man or shaman who led ceremonies. In one ritual performed by Umwak, the tribe gathered around a bonfire and played music while the shaman, in a headdress, danced with Queen Urgah, who held a stone. A group's shaman often became one of the ruler's most trusted advisers. In addition, some groups had an oracle thought to be able to predict the future, adepts, and spiritmasters. A large altar of wood, skins, and bones often occupied a prominent spot in a Dulok village. Mystics were distinguished by their regalia; the shaman Umwak carried a staff capped by a large skull, and the oracle Murgoob carried a knotted staff.
Although such Duloks could simply fake supernatural abilities, some sorcerers were indeed Force users. Still, they had to rely on totems and talismans to access the energy field. Such individuals were particularly prone to the temptations of the dark side of the Force, a propensity that earned them a reputation for dark magic from some Ewoks. Nevertheless, a few Dulok shamans employed their gifts to better the lot of their fellow villagers—and were branded as oddballs for their efforts.
Evolution and Ewok rivalryEdit
- «We Duloks were all set to take over the forest when they brought out that cursed wagon and knocked us clear back into the swamps. How I'd love to get my hands on that thing! I'd teach those Ewoks a lesson!»
The Duloks evolved on the Forest Moon of Endor from a common ancestor with the Ewoks. Following their evolutionary split, the Ewoks took to Endor's vast woodlands, while the Duloks were relegated to the moon's sparse bogs and more desolate areas.
From former familiarity emerged fierce rivalry as Dulok groups harassed and bullied their Ewok neighbors. As early as 3640 BBY, members of the two species warred with one another. For instance, around that time—during the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire—the Ewok Treek claimed to have bested the Duloks of the Sagreb Swamps; when she entered their territory, her story went, they targeted her for her skin—only to have Treek cut their ears off and string them onto a necklace. Over years of outright war, other Duloks were more successful. The species developed into apt raiders: Ewok villages fell, and Ewok tribes were wiped out in the face of the taller species. Dulok bands developed combative relationships with neighboring groups of Ewoks. For example, the Pubam Duloks opposed the Gondula and Panshee Ewoks from the Dulok Village.
One band of Duloks, headed by King Ulgo and, after a coup, King Vulgarr, menaced the Ewoks of Bright Tree Village in the years of the Ewok Teebo's youth. In one encounter, Vulgarr and his warriors tricked the Ewoks into believing that a monster had kidnapped the wokling Malani. When Chief Chirpa and a troop of warriors set off to find the perpetrator, Vulgarr and his soldiers ransacked the undefended village and kidnapped its woklings. Only a combined assault by the returning Ewok warriors and a giant known as the Grundakk routed the invaders and freed the wokling slaves. The Ewok shaman Logray planted Vulgarr in the ground and declared that he would grow into a gnarled tree as a warning to other would-be Dulok brigands.
Gorneesh's tribe was a relatively large band that lived in the Dulok Swamp just beyond the borders of Happy Grove. Under the leadership of the hulking, one-eyed King Gorneesh, they proved a persistent pest to the Ewoks and schemed to steal their harvest, kidnap their woklings, and take over their village, with several hostile encounters in 3 ABY. This harassment often manifested as simple raids, as when Gorneesh and his warriors stole Logray's shadowroot soap, became invisible, and invaded Bright Tree Village. In another encounter, they tried to steal the Ewoks' sun crystal but accidentally destroyed it instead. They kidnapped Ewoks to do the tasks they despised, such as caring for their pups and cleaning their village. During one raid, they sneaked into Bright Tree Village while the Ewoks were preoccupied with their annual Hallowe'en party. In an accident, the Ewok Chirpa fell into a sack and was carried away by the Duloks, who thought he was a sack of food. When they realized their mistake back at camp, they decided to hold him for ransom. A group of young Ewoks from the village entered the camp, and Chirpa took advantage of the commotion to escape his bonds and fight his way back to his village.
The two tribes fought a long war. In a decisive battle, the Duloks advanced on the Ewoks' Soul Trees with axes and tried to cut them down, but the Ewok Erpham Warrick's battle wagon drove the raiders away. Three generations later, the Ewoks' sacred Tree of Light grew weak and needed renewal. Gorneesh and his band rushed to fell it before the Ewoks could perform the necessary ceremony, but in the ensuing battle, the Ewoks Wicket W. Warrick and Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka foiled the plot. The tribe later managed to steal Erpham Warrick's reconstructed battle wagon and aimed it at the Soul Trees, but Wicket W. Warrick destroyed the war machine before it could reach the sacred grove. During another scheme, the Duloks stole a sacred fish carving from the Ewoks and used it for their own battleship, but it was recovered by Wicket W. Warrick and his companions, who had been pressed into service as galley slaves. In one instance, Gorneesh capitalized on the long war by pretending to proffer a peace treaty. However, during the Chirpa-Gorneesh peace summit, he ordered his troops to cut the ropes holding up a bridge once the Ewok delegation started across.
Other schemes hatched by Gorneesh and company included trying to prevent the Ewoks from harvesting berries, setting snares and traps to capture Ewoks, attempting to steal an Ewok balloon, and scheming to steal the Ewok shaman Logray's magical staff.
Members of the tribe, including Gorneesh's wife, Urgah, and son, Boogutt, participated in raids and schemes. The shaman, Umwak, represented the tribe in dealings with the witch Morag and occasionally scouted with his nephew. The tribe often found itself relegated to the role of henchmen by other powerful Ewok enemies. For example, Morag once delivered a baby Phlog named Nahkee to the tribe and ordered them to watch over him; still, a group of young Ewoks freed the infant, and his enraged family terrorized the swamp-dwellers in revenge. Similarly, a being known as the Stranger frightened the Duloks into raiding Bright Tree Village; during the distraction, he stole the Ewoks' Sunstar-Shadowstone.
Relations with the galaxyEdit
- «Wise and sturdy and great chief! Agluk is not a threat! It is the Skull Ones! They came in a flash. Destroyed the village! Put the noble Duloks in chains! You will be next!»
«Demons! They brought fire and lightning! They destroyed rock and tree! Almost destroyed poor Agluk! They churned the ground… and woke the Griagh!»
- ―Agluk tells Chief Chirpa about the Empire's arrival on Endor[src]
Over centuries, Endor's massive gravity shadow and cloak of space-borne detritus crashed hundreds of starships on the Forest Moon. A few of these offworld crew and passengers survived and managed to eke out a living. In this way, the Duloks came into contact with Gupins, Jindas, Phlogs, Sanyassans, Tulgah, and other species. Duloks struck up trade relations with some of these, fealty to others, and covetous designs on still more. Those few ships that managed to return to the stars spread the moon's lifeforms beyond their homeworld, and at least one Dulok was present on the planet Coruscant in 21 BBY.
Still, Endor was far from the galactic core and only accessible through a long and difficult hyperspace journey. Although the Forest Moon—along with the rest of the Inner Zuma Region—ostensibly became part of the Galactic Republic in 50 BBY, it remained mostly unknown in the galaxy at large. The Duloks, as a relatively scarce species, were even more obscure. While Corellian Security Force intelligence knew of the species by 2 ABY and included a brief description of them in their classified CorSec Database, a report filed by Imperial scout Pfilbee Jhorn before the Battle of Endor either missed the Duloks completely or deemed them unworthy of mention. This report became the most well-read account of the Forest Moon's inhabitants for the eight years following the fall of the Empire.
However, circa 4 ABY, Gorneesh's tribe became intimately familiar with the Galactic Empire when the village was invaded by what the tribe took to be demons—actually stormtroopers and Imperial soldiers looking for a site to build a shield generator bunker that could protect their Death Star II battlestation in orbit around the moon. These outsiders, whom the Duloks dubbed "Skull Ones," rained untold destruction on the settlement and the surrounding swamp. They inadvertently awakened a beast known as the Griagh, as well; it emerged from its burrow and ravaged Duloks and Imperials alike. Once the commotion died down, the Imperials enslaved the remaining Duloks and began constructing the bunker.
A Dulok named Agluk lost an arm in the chaos but escaped to take refuge in a nearby tunnel system. He eventually slinked to Bright Tree Village, where he pleaded with Chirpa to help his people. The Chief caged the Dulok, but the Ewoks Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka, Paploo, and Wicket W. Warrick freed him to lead them to the site of the attacks. Joined en route by Latara and Teebo, Agluk led them to the site, where they saw the Imperial Lieutenant Renz order the Duloks executed, since they were too recalcitrant to be useful as slaves. Agluk led the Ewoks through the tunnels he had been living in to sneak up on the invaders and mount a rescue. Yet their alliance shattered when the Ewoks tried to free Zrani, a Wistie Agluk kept captive for illumination. Firing a stormtrooper blaster rifle he had scavenged, Agluk woke the Griagh; the newly freed Wistie led the Ewoks to safety but Agluk was torn limb from limb.
Agluk's tale of the Skull Ones and the Griagh also prompted the shaman Logray and Paploo to consult the Dathomiri Nightsister Charal for information on those dangers. She foretold a period of darkness and destruction for the moon, but she also tried to steal Logray's Sunstar. She reanimated Dulok skeletons in her attack, but Paploo and Logray overcame them and regained the Sunstar. En route back to their village, the pair came across a group of stormtroopers with Dulok captives just as Zrani led the Ewok foursome out from Agluk's cavern. The Ewoks attacked the Imperials, freeing the Dulok captives from their stun cuffs so they could join the fight. However, the Griagh burst. With Sunstar in hand, Zrani flew down one of the beast's gullets, killing it but dying in the process. Now armed with stormtrooper rifles, the Duloks chased the Skull Ones into the forest. However, with their swamp gone and their numbers down, Gorneesh's tribe remained in shambles for some time.
Eight months later, the Ewoks' knowledge of the Dulok tunnels under the bunker enabled them to lead forces from the Alliance to Restore the Republic under the structure to overwhelm the Imperial forces there during the Battle for Endor. After their victory, the Alliance made its base on the Forest Moon, and offworld visits peaked, including the Nagai invasion of 4 ABY, the arrival of post-battle scavengers, the establishment of tourism, and the founding of Salfur's Trading Post. Endor ostensibly became a member of the New Republic, but its representative in the Senate was an Ayrou from the planet Maya Kovel. In 12 ABY, a team of biologists from the University of Sanbra, headed by Professor Mankuskett, investigated the native lifeforms of the Forest Moon. Mankuskett later wrote a report from the expedition, in which he presented the first detailed description of Duloks to the galaxy at large.
Behind the scenesEdit
- "Ewoks represent love, loyalty, and bravery. Duloks represent everything else."
- ―Zack Giallongo
The Duloks were created by writer and artist Joe Johnston for his 1984 storybook, The Adventures of Teebo: A Tale of Magic and Suspense. The book depicts the species as a rival group to the Ewoks, closely related, but opposite in personality. The Duloks in Johnston's story perform misdeeds that the Ewok characters abhor, including kidnapping Ewok children, threatening to eat them, and making clothing from Ewok furs.
During development for the Star Wars: Ewoks animated series, story editor Paul Dini adapted Johnston's creations for Saturday morning. Because the leader of the Duloks had died in Johnston's story, Dini created Gorneesh, Umwak, and Urgah to be the Dulok leaders for the show. Dini envisioned the Duloks as descended from a common ancestor as the Ewoks, and as sharing the Ewoks' love of the trees, albeit in the swamps instead of the forest. However, over generations, they developed into evil creatures and worshippers of the Night Spirit, making them the opposite of the good-doing Ewoks. Dini and the other writers tamed the Duloks from their description in the Johnston storybook, making them more comical. Ewoks first aired in 1985. Members of the species appear in the opening credits of each episode, but they feature in 8 of the 13 episodes of the first season and 3 of the 22 of the second. Later writers have identified Dulok-centered episodes to be among the series' best. For example, Jon Bradley Snyder singles out "Asha" as a standout from the first season, "Wicket's Wagon" as one of the best animated outings, and "Rampage of the Phlogs" as one of the funniest thanks to a scene in which King Gorneesh has to change the diaper of a baby Phlog. Dan Wallace and Amy Pronovost point to the episodes "The Tree of Light," "Wicket's Wagon," and "Asha" as the most representative of the Dulok species.
A variety of tie-in items were released during the run of Star Wars: Ewoks, including Dulok action figures from Kenner and storybook adaptations. Three Dulok-themed books were released: The Red Ghost: An Ewok Adventure from Random House in 1986, based on the episode "Asha," and The Haunted Village and Wicket's Wagon from Dragon Picture Books in 1987, based on the episodes of the same name. While The Red Ghost includes all-new artwork, the Dragon volumes use images taken directly from the cartoons. The Dragon volumes misspell the species' name as Dulock.
A 1985 television advertisement for Kenner's Ewoks toys prominently features the Dulok characters that were sold as part of the line. Gorneesh Urgah, Umwak, and two Dulok scouts hold the Ewok shaman, Logray, captive in a wooden cage. The Ewoks assault the Duloks' position with the Ewok battle wagon, however, prompting the Dulok scouts to flee. Umwak defends the Duloks with two magic spells: the first animates a tree to fight alongside the Duloks, but the obstacle is felled by the wagon's battering ram. Umwak then creates a rift in the earth with a magical groundquake, which separates the Duloks from the Ewoks. Nevertheless, the battle wagon's front ramp drops, and the Ewoks traverse the ravine to save their captured shaman.
Meanwhile, the Spanish art company Beaumont Studios featured Gorneesh and his Duloks in five short scenarios released in 1986 for its MyComyc comic book. The stories went unnoticed in the United States until 2013, when Dark Horse Comics Vice President of Publishing Randy Stradley explored the possibility of republishing them in one of his company's Star Wars Omnibus titles. However, staff at Lucasfilm Ltd. were unable to find proof that the comics had been licensed, although there was circumstantial evidence. Thus, the MyComyc stories' status is ambiguous within Star Wars Legends.
Sources disagree about the degree of familial closeness between Duloks and Ewoks. The article "Castaways of Endor" says the two species are "closely related," while The Adventures of Teebo, the earliest source, calls the species "distant relatives," a description echoed by the Star Wars Encyclopedia and The Essential Guide to Alien Species. The storybook The Red Ghost instead uses the term cousins to describe the relationship, terminology also used in The Essential Guide to Characters, the CorSec Database A-G, and From Pencil to Pixel: The Art of Star Wars Galaxies. Finally, both the "Endor" entry in the original Databank and the article "A Star Wars CELibration" call them "distant cousins."
The online computer game Star Wars Galaxies allowed players to visit three Dulok villages and fight Dulok adversaries; visiting a Dulok village granted the player a special badge. The game's design team used the Dulok characters from Star Wars Ewoks as a basis for their own designs but tried to depict the species as fiercer and more menacing in appearance for the game.
The article "Castaways of Endor," published in 2008 on Hyperspace, describes heretofore unknown aspects of Dulok biology and culture. Amy Pronovost wrote most of the article's section on Duloks. An earlier version of "Castaways of Endor," slated to appear in Star Wars Gamer magazine, included gaming statistics for use with the Star Wars Roleplaying Game from Wizards of the Coast. This material, later released by Dan Wallace on the web, claims that Duloks speak Ewokese. In game terms, they are weaker, less perceptive, and less likable than most species, yet healthier. Their shamanism is likened to Ewok shamanism and Gupin magic, all three of which are described as manifestations of the Force that use different totemic foci. Also cut were adventure ideas involving the species. In one, a band of Duloks supplies captives to Hutt slavers. Their activities threaten to wipe out Endor's Wisties, and the player characters must decide whether to step in and risk angering the Duloks and Hutts. Another scenario has a group of Duloks besieging the Gupins after a bad trade deal. The heroes have the opportunity to intervene in the dispute or to take advantage of the distraction to steal the Force artifact inside the Gupins' Juniper Chest.
Author and artist Zack Giallongo, a fan of the Ewoks cartoon, lamented the fact that more material did not address the Ewok–Dulok rivalry; he thus incorporated the Duloks into the comic book he wrote and illustrated for Dark Horse Comics, Star Wars: Ewoks—Shadows of Endor, published in 2013. In the story, he attempted to return to Johnston's darker characterization of the species from their first storybook appearance.