Jenet

Jenet

Species: Jenet
Home Planet: Garban

Jenet
The Jenets, or Jenet, were a species of sentient, humanoid rodents, best known for their exceptional memories and scavenger nature. Other species often regarded Jenets as ugly and quarrelsome. They had pink skin, red eyes, and wiry fur, which grew sparsely on the body but more thickly on their heads. Their prominent whiskers twitched as they spoke. As adaptations to aid scavenging, they could digest almost any form of organic matter, and could rely upon keen eyesight, hearing, and smell. The species were excellent runners, climbers, and swimmers, and their flexible bodies allowed them to squeeze through openings as narrow as twelve centimeters by disjointing their long limbs and separating their cranial plates. Jenet reproductive biology encouraged rapid population growth, as both gestation and maturation occurred rapidly in comparison to those processes in many other species.

Originally from the planet Garban in the Tau Sakar system, the Jenets evolved into cunning survivalists who systematically drove into extinction those species that preyed upon them, an event they remembered as the Great Conquest. The exception was the danchaf, a clever arboreal species whose presence in Garban's forests prevented the Jenets from fully dominating such areas. As their technology progressed, the Jenets colonized the six other habitable planets that orbited Tau Sakar to ameliorate conditions on their increasingly overcrowded homeworld. Their communities across the system were distinguished by the species' tortuous bureaucracy, made up of Jenets whose jobs were simply to commit to memory as many facts about their fellows as possible. Jenet eidetic recall influenced social relations, as a Jenet's name contained a long list of his or her deeds and accomplishments and informed others of that individual's status in Jenet society. The rulers of the species were the Council of 127 and the premier. Jenet populations maintained Community Heaps, cooperatively owned landfills replete with scavenged and discarded items. With the ascension of Galactic Emperor Palpatine and the institution of the New Order, the Galactic Empire found the Jenets to be useful as slaves, because the rodents' high reproductive rate allowed their masters to pay little attention to the detrimental effects of poor labor and living conditions.

Those Jenets who migrated beyond the Tau Sakar system often found employment in fields that made use of their infallible memories, such as government, administration, and business. For example, a Jenet named Losh worked in the civil service divisions on Coruscant and helped Captain Gregar Typho of Naboo investigate the death of Padmé Amidala. However, other Jenets ventured into the galaxy's criminal element. The Invisible Shell, for instance, was a crime ring operated by a clan of Jenets on the planet Pavo Prime under the leadership of a male named Lorimar Lebauer. The species' ability to remember even minor details of things they had seen or heard made them excellent spies as well. Despite their mistreatment by the Empire, few Jenets supported the Alliance to Restore the Republic or joined its successor, the New Republic. Two exceptions were Thorsh, a Jenet espionage agent during the Yuuzhan Vong War, and Reeqo Swen, a Jenet Jedi in training.

Biology & Appearance:
Jenets, or Jenet, were a species regarded as unattractive if not repulsive by Humans. They were sentient rodents who stood between 1.4 and 1.6 meters tall. Although a few individuals exhibited a highly muscled or corpulent physique, the average Jenet had a gaunt build characterized by long, thin limbs. Jenet locomotion involved a bipedal gait whereby they walked on their toes, with the long, wedge-shaped feet jutting upward at an angle. Their forelimbs terminated in four attenuated fingers and an opposable thumb, and their hindpaws in four elongated toes. All of these digits ended in sharp claws. Although Jenet physiology made them adept at running, jumping, swimming and climbing, their general form of movement was to scurry from place to place. They also exhibited extreme flexibility: a Jenet could fit through an opening as small as twelve centimeters across by dislocating his or her limbs and separating the individual bones of the cranium to squeeze through.

Their pale, oily, pink skin was covered in coarse, thin fur. It grew more thickly on the top of the head, where a mass of hair of a different color from the main coat might have manifest. Fur colors ranged from white or gray to red. Some individuals sported a short beard as well.

The rounded Jenet muzzle could grow quite long, terminating in a wet nose surrounded by stiff whiskers that grew to a length equal to the smallest opening through which a Jenet could fit. The beings had a keen sense of smell, developed to help them find food. A cleft upper lip lay below the nostrils, only partially covering a pronounced set of sharp, yellowish teeth. Jenets had small, red eyes set under thick brow ridges. The rodents were noted for their keen eyesight, another food-finding adaptation; they could see well even in low-light conditions. Their pointed ears lay flat against the head, providing most members of the species acute hearing although not all Jenet shared this trait.

Jenets were omnivorous. They were able to digest virtually any organic matter, and their diet ranged from wild fruit to necrotic flesh. At least some members of the species slept with their arms and legs held tight to the body and the muzzle nestled near the hindlimbs.

Jenets had two sexes and reproduced sexually. Pregnant females carried their offspring in the womb for 90 standard days before bearing a litter of four to six young. Jenets matured rapidly; they learned to walk by two months of age and entered adolescence at four standard years. Jenets reached sexual maturity at nine and had a life expectancy of 70 standard years. Jenets were particularly fecund, so that a female rarely went more than a standard year before giving birth to another litter.

Society & Culture:
Jenets were temperamental and obsessed with trivialities, which led many other species to regard them as irksome and obnoxious. Despite their dominance over their homeworld both politically and technologically, Jenets were unabashed scavengers by nature. They never discarded anything: whatever they acquired was kept in their homes or in large piles in their community's warrens. These Community Heaps, filled with broken tools, leftover food, empty containers, and the like, were common property, and Jenets enjoyed rummaging through them to find items of use. Although they were omnivores, they did not hunt or raise animals; rather, they ate only meat they found from an animal that had already died. The species practiced animal husbandry to ensure that the wild creatures of their worlds did not overpopulate. The Jenets themselves had to contend with creatures that might try to eat them, so they kept an ear out for such attacks while working. The sentient rodents were adept at fleeing in an emergency, running and leaping to safety.

Perhaps the most notable Jenet trait was their extraordinarily accurate and detailed memories; members of the species never forgot even the most trivial datum. One manifestation of this characteristic was a tradition of ballad singing about ancient heroes, poems beloved by the rodents but considered doggerel by non-Jenets. This infallible memory also meant that Jenets never forgot slights and insults, and therefore could hold grudges indefinitely. In Jenet society, rumors and reputation were of paramount importance: Jenets could hold actions against even people whom they had never met, based merely on hearsay. Jenets cared little for what other species considered tact, so they were not shy about airing these opinions and grievances in public. Since they could easily recall any bit of information about another person, Jenets freely insulted each other, even when among close friends and family. Exchanges of excoriation were so common as to be a form of greeting, since an upbraided Jenet could usually recall some embarrassing fact about his or her interlocutor. Jenets took pride in being denigrated, for it proved they had gained enough notoriety to be worth the effort. However, few non-Jenets found such treatment enjoyable. Members of other species usually considered the Jenets' temperament to be argumentative, pedantic, dull, and uncouth. Some non-Jenets even accursed the rodents of fabricating memories so as to influence others. These widely held beliefs meant that many species simply chose to avoid Jenets when possible. Nevertheless, the Jenets had no tolerance for ignorance or duplicity.

The Jenets had access to all aspects of galactic technology, including hyperspace-capable starships. Nevertheless, Garban boasted only a limited-service spaceport. Most Jenets had a healthy work ethic, and their obsessive attention to detail made them useful employees. Nevertheless, they tended not to learn technological skills and preferred to automate as much of their production as possible in lieu of mass labor. Members of the species particularly hated working as miners. Despite their fur, Jenets tended to wear clothing. The style of this varied with the individual; some males preferred loose-fitting tunics with trousers, while others sported a more militaristic look, with button-down jacket and epaulettes. Each member of a group led by Ludlo Lebauer wore an elaborate and expensive noron doublet and tunic suit with a blaster sidearm. Some females wore backless blouses with shorts that reached the knees and were slitted up the hip, a look considered provocative by male members of the species. Others had clingsilk skirts.

Language:
The species' native language, also called Jenet, consisted of soft, short bursts of high-pitched chittering, squeaking, squealing, and barking. Different sounds indicated different concepts; one type of squeak showed approval, for example, and a certain sniff showed scorn. Due to the species' long memories, there was no written form of the language; things that other species might write down were simply committed to memory. Some Jenets learned Basic, but this was not a species-wide skill. Rodent-like mannerisms accompanied Jenet speech. A Jenet's nose, whiskers, and snout could twitch and jerk to convey emotions such as amusement, condescension, concern, disgust, or unease. This was accompanied by expressive movements of the ears, eyes, lips, and head. Jenets laughed to show that they found something funny. Others developed habits of caressing or pulling on their whiskers while communicating. Males and females flirted with one another.

At their core, Jenet names generally consisted of one or two segments, such as Shan'Gredor Chirr't Ferr, Rhet H'rrr, and Ch'irrk Felt. However, over time, Jenets expected others to recognize them with longer appellations that recounted their accomplishments and exploits. For example, a Jenet named Channik might eventually be known as Channik Who Built a Starfighter and Flew to Ryloth, a member of the species called Lezarn might be called Lezarn Who Deals in Spice, while a third named Rish might come to be known as Rish Who Slew Vahgar the Drunken Houk. When Jenets were introduced to each other, a complete record of their achievements was given as part of their names. With this information, Jenets could tell where another Jenet was placed in their complex social hierarchy. Accomplishments that increased status required two other Jenets as witnesses. To avoid conflicts of interest, Jenets were never allowed to introduce themselves. Pairs of Jenets could work together for years without knowing each other's name, simply because a third Jenet acquainted with them both was unavailable. Of course, this did not entirely prevent Jenets from dishonesty, as they frequently exaggerated the accomplishments of their friends and downplayed the exploits of Jenets they disliked. This complex system of requesting and giving names sometimes led to confusion when Jenets dealt with members of other species, whom the rodents might have expected to also follow this custom.

Government & Demographics:
The Jenets lived on Garban and six other habitable planets in the Tau Sakar system of the Outer Rim Territories. They were divided into clans and tended to live only among their own kind. Female Jenets had little role in society other than to bear young. Due to their rapid reproduction, however, their enclaves could easily lead to all members being related to one another and the introduction of genetic defects from inbreeding. Jenets thus set up ties with other Jenet groups to exchange children whom they called sub-adults and thus increase the gene pool. Jenet children could walk and scavenge their own meals at two months of age. Jenets put their children in schools to educate them.

The Jenets shared Garban with the danchaf, or tree goblins, a creature they held to be highly intelligent but which many scientists considered non-sentient. Still, the Jenets claimed that the danchaf were simply too intelligent and dangerous to be observed by scientists in the field. Jenet oral histories spoke of the danchaf with great trepidation, and the Jenets avoided the tree goblin's forest habitat. Instead, their communities were subterranean warrens dug deep into the surface of their worlds. Such burrows were cramped and claustrophobic, but to Jenets, they were normal—although the conditions caused Jenets to misunderstand the importance of personal space to members of other species. Life in such enclosed spaces led to generalized acrophobia; Jenets much preferred subterranean environments to elevated ones. They exhibited utmost cooperation with one another due to the exacting social stratification that their eidetic memories afforded. Another practical application of their recitation of names and histories upon meeting one another was that when a Jenet heard the background of another Jenet, it allowed him or her to gauge whether the new acquaintance was a social superior or inferior, and thus whether or not he or she was worth dealing with. Despite the social stratification this system engendered and upheld, deeds were the ultimate determiner of status, so Jenet society allowed for social mobility.

The Jenets were ruled by a premier or premiere, assisted in his or her duties by the Council of 127. These positions were selected via an opaque process poorly understood among non-Jenets, although all members of the species knew who their rulers were based on the accomplishments listed in their names. The council oversaw a huge, byzantine bureaucracy, which they ran like a corporation. The bureaucracy's job was to oversee resources and secure the homeland. Millions of Jenets served as functionaries in the government, their task to memorize details about as many other Jenets as they could. This information was then used to assign jobs, resolve disputes, and distribute resources. Group deposits of goods known to the Community Heaps fell under the bureaucracy's administration. The prevalence of red tape in Jenet society meant that members of the species were seldom bothered by such matters even when dealing with the bureaucracies of other cultures.

History:
The Jenets evolved from rodent prey animals on Garban. Using the remains of ancient trash piles, archaeologists hypothesized that after the species had developed sentience, early Jenets lived in caves underground. They stayed in such cramped confines for much of their day, only stepping out to the surface to scavenge for food. Experts agreed that thousands of years before the Battle of Yavin ancient Jenets organized against their predators and began an onslaught against the species they had once feared. Jenet legend revered this period, which they called the Great Conquest, as a time of heroes and warriors, immortalized in epic poetry. According to such tales, the danchaf of Garban were once a sophisticated and cunning species who ruled Garban's woodlands in packs and prevented the Jenets from penetrating the forests. The Jenet rulers Chirr't Ferr and Rhet H'rrr formed armies to drive back the danchaf hordes. H'rrr, according to legend, developed attacks to target camale danchaf—one of the species' four genders—and thus disturb the tree goblins' reproductive abilities. An epic titled The Ballad of Shan'Gredor told of the Jenet Ch'irrk Felt, who created a giant trap of pots, pans, and bright phospowder; the noise and blinding lights dazzled the danchaf and allowed the Jenet soldiers to slay them. Although such wars were unsuccessful in eradicating the danchaf from the planet, legend claimed that the Jenet attacks forced the danchaf to devolve into a primitive state and allowed the Jenets to spread out and dominate Garban. With the exception of a xenobiologist named Xemlorn, scientists dismissed any notion of a more sophisticated past for the danchaf, thus doubting the veracity of the Jenets' heroic tales. To the Jenets, however, the legends were key elements of oral history.

Over time, Jenet society became organized into clans and oriented around life in warrens. The Jenet bureaucracy developed, as did the positions of premier and the Council of 127. Jenets also learned to manage the animals on their world without resorting to widespread eradication. The species advanced technologically, eventually reaching spaceflight by their own innovation or scavenging a stardrive from another source.

Over time, Jenet fecundity and lack of predators caused the species to overpopulate Garban. The Jenets sent settlers to the other worlds of the Tau Sakar system, where they found conditions very similar to those on Garban—a fact that led scholars to postulate that an unknown intelligence once terraformed the planets. The Jenets eventually founded colonies outside the Tau Sakar system as well, and over time they reached technological parity with other advanced worlds in the galaxy. Their system became part of the Abrion sector in the Outer Rim Territories.

Their spread to other worlds inevitably brought the Jenets into contact with pan-galactic government. During the Galactic Civil War, the Galactic Empire took over the Tau Sakar system. Imperial sentientologist and propagandist Obo Rin included the Jenets in his Catalog of Intelligent Life in the Galaxy, a project commissioned by Darth Vader to detail those sentient species of most interest to the Empire. Rin claimed that the galactic regime protected the Jenets from marauding members of the Rebel Alliance; in exchange, the Jenets gladly served the Emperor as laborers, mining ore from the planets of their home system. In the Jenets' view, however, they were mere slaves, forced to live in labor camps and do a task that they collectively deplored. The Empire found the Jenets to be useful workers on other planets as well due to their high reproductive rate, which rendered any worries about mortality levels moot. Accordingly, enslaved Jenets often operated in perilous work conditions. The Empire set up breeding facilities for the species in an effort to select for traits that increased their pacifist tendencies and compliance and decreased their intellects. Jenets willing to fight back against the Empire were rare, and few members of the species joined the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

After the collapse of the Empire in 4 ABY, the Jenets still had to contend with the after-effects of a generation of Imperial breeding programs and enslavement. The species never joined the New Republic due to their preference to be among only their own kind, although individual Jenets did serve in various capacities in the new government and its successor, the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. The Shi'ido anthropologist Mammon Hoole included an entry on the Jenets in his publication The Essential Guide to Alien Species.

Jenet in the Galaxy:
Jenets away from the Tau Sakar system preferred to live in Jenet-only colonies, isolated from any further integration with other species. Due to their species' prolific reproductive rate, such an arrangement was easily achieved. However, to prevent inbreeding, even Jenet communities away from their home system maintained the tradition of swapping children with other groups to widen the available gene pool. The preference for other Jenets encouraged the species to travel in groups; when an outsider encountered a Jenet, he or she could expect other Jenets to be nearby. The Jedi Knight Alema Rar encountered two Jenets sleeping in a private chamber in the lower levels of Coruscant in 40 ABY, for example.

For income, many Jenets capitalized on their memories to work as administrators, bureaucrats, and merchants. For instance, in 13 BBY, a middle-aged Jenet named Losh was employed at the headquarters of the civil service divisions on Coruscant. When a Human named Gregar Typho came looking for information about fellow Human Anakin Skywalker and the mysterious death of the Human queen Padmé Amidala, his knowledge of Jenet customs endeared him to the bureaucrat and prompted Losh to set him on the correct trail. The Jenets had established an embassy to the Uvena system, home of the Shistavanen species, by the Galactic Civil War; during that period, the Shistavanen Yurdak Fav and Lak Sivrak found their species' Alpha Premier, Korta Sac, dead at the embassy. Under the regime of Emperor Palpatine, many Jenets in administrative positions were forced to work as slaves of the Empire.

However, after the New Republic's rise to prominence, some Jenets found work for the government in bureaucratic and administrative occupations. During the Swarm War, the Human Chief of State Cal Omas employed a Jenet personal assistant named Salla at Unity Green; one of her tasks was to refuse to schedule meetings with individuals Omas did not wish to see. Other Jenets sided against the New Republic; during the Yuuzhan Vong War, a Jenet joined the Peace Brigade, an organization that supported the Yuuzhan Vong against the galactic governemnt. He attacked the Jedi Knights Jaina Solo and Lowbacca in a senate bunker during the Second Battle of Ylesia, but Solo dispatched him with a kick to the face. A few years later, the Human Sith Lord Darth Caedus employed a Jenet administrative aide and lieutenant named Orlopp.

Other Jenets operated within the galactic underworld as criminals and scoundrels. For instance, Tols Vengra had cyborg surgery to implant a Borg Construct Aj^6 implant to enhance his memory even beyond Jenet standards. Despite earlier ambitions to enter his species' bureaucracy and serve in government, the surgery removed all desire to help others. Vengra eventually found work with Opun Mcgrrrr, a Human crime lord. Vengra ascended to become Mcgrrrr's personal assistant, but in reality, the Jenet had control of most of the organization's affairs. Rather than challenge his nominal boss's leadership, however, Vengra siphoned off funds to prepare for his retirement at a later date. In 0 BBY, Mcgrrr ordered Vengra to track down a wayward CZ-series communications/business droid on Tatooine. The assignment brought Vengra into conflict with the Snivvian bounty hunter Snaggletooth—after the same droid for its owner, Jabba Desilijic Tiure—and his brother Takeel and brought about the destruction of the droid. Snaggletooth then used the droid's photoreceptor recording to show Vengra's involvement in the incident and thus implicate Mcgrrrr's organization.

The Lebauer clan of Jenets was involved in the gambling industry on the planet Pavo Prime, with investments in the Seahorse Casino and ownership of the Pearl Island Casino. Jenets served the Pearl Island as clerks, overseers, security guards, bartenders, porters, and pit bosses. However, these gaming interests were simply cover for the Invisible Shell, a criminal organization run by Lorimar Lebauer and other elders of the clan; the various Jenets employed there were also trained as brawlers who could be called upon to defend the organization's interests if the need arose. After Lorimar Lebauer was arrested by the Thyferrans for selling counterfeit bacta—a product over which they controlled supply and distribution—Lebauer's organization fell under the nominal control of his nephew, Ludlo Lebauer. In 8 ABY, the Humans Leia Organa Solo and Han Solo, the Wookiee Chewbacca, and the protocol droid C-3PO visited Pavo Prime to bargain with Ludlo Lebauer for boasa statues from Alderaan that he had in his possession. Although Lebauer tried to squeeze the New Republic delegation for lucrative salvaging contracts, two other Jenets—whom Organa Solo dubbed Moonface and Tall—seemed more willing to part with the artwork. Organa Solo eventually offered to have Lorimar Lebauer freed from jail in exchange for the statues, something she knew Ludlo Lebauer did not want—but which he could not refuse without revealing his animosity for his imprisoned uncle. After a heated standoff with Lebauer and his assistant, a Jenet named Verm, the Solos talked their way out of danger by revealing that they had recorded Ludlo Lebauer speaking favorably about his uncle's incarceration, and in exchange for burying that information, the younger Lebauer allowed the New Republic representatives to depart—with the boasas.

Eight Jenet guards protected a factory that manufactured Human replica droids on the planet Onadax in 28 ABY. When Jedi Knight Jaina Solo arrived there, she used the Force to cloud the guards' perception and pass herself off as a mynock. Later, as she escaped, the perception had faded, and the Jenets tried to shoot her; nevertheless, she escaped. Another Jenet criminal received visitors in a cantina near the Lizil nest in 35 ABY, during the Swarm War. Others operated as fringers. For instance, Jenets sometimes patronized Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine; in 5 ABY, Zorba the Hutt learned that Leia Organa had killed his son, Jabba, from one of these Jenets.

Jenets made excellent spies. One, a slave who had been named "Jen" by his master, Bwahl the Hutt, observed the Hutt's meetings and remembered the goings on, thus providing Bwahl insight into things the Hutt may have missed. The Twi'lek Tavri caught a Jenet spying on him in a Mos Eisley docking bay during the Galactic Civil War. Before Tavri could discover who the Jenet worked for, the spy went for a weapon, and the Twi'lek was forced to kill him. In 29 ABY, during the Yuuzhan Vong War, a Jenet named Thorsh—short for his full Jenet name—worked as a New Republic reconnaissance and espionage expert. He was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, the New Republic's enemy in the war, at Bilbringi and imprisoned in a Yuuzhan Vong prison camp on the planet Selvaris. Thorsh became the de facto leader of a group of prisoners who planned and dug a tunnel to escape; he went by the codename "Garban." Fellow prisoners, Humans Pash Cracken and Page, had Thorsh and three Bith inmates memorize a mathematical equation on a holowafer so that the non-Humans could smuggle the information out past the guards. During the escape attempt, Thorsh reached freedom and fled on a swoop, but the Bith were killed. Thorsh rendezvoused with the New Republic freighter Millennium Falcon and escaped to the planet Contruum to debrief General Airen Cracken on the information from the holowafer.

Some Jenets could manipulate the Force. One of these was the Jedi Grand Master Fae Coven, who lived during the New Sith Wars and helped write The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force. Centuries later, the Jenet Reeqo Swen also studied to be a Jedi. While still an apprentice in 43 ABY, Swen served as a guard at the New Jedi Temple on Coruscant, when Han Solo turned over the prisoner Yaqeel Saav'etu to the Jedi. The Jenet and his partner, the Duros Melari Ruxon, both resigned from the Jedi Order in protest over the political policies of Natasi Daala, the head of state. The move spooked the leader of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, who feared the consequences of allowing Jedi—or former Jedi—to become independent of the central government.

Attribute Dice: 12D
DEXTERITY 2D/4D
KNOWLEDGE 1D+2/4D
MECHANICAL 1D/3D+2
PERCEPTION 2D/4D
STRENGTH 1D/4D
TECHNICAL 1D/3D+1

Special Abilities:
Enhanced Memory: A Jenet that has at least 1D in any Knowledge skill automatically gains a +1D bonus to the use of that skill because of its memory.

Astrogation: Because Jenets can memorize coordinates and formulas, a Jenet with at least 1D in Astrogation gains +1D to its roll.

Hearing: Jenet’s advanced hearing gives them a bonus of +1D for Perception checks involving hearing.

Swimming: Jenets can advance the swimming skill at half the normal Character Point cost.

Climbing: Jenets can advance the climbing skill at half the normal Character Point cost.

Flexibility: Jenets can disjoint their limbs to fit through incredibly small openings.

Story Factors:
Tactless: Despite their memories, the Jenet have not learned the secrets of tact. They will freely embarrass or insult any other being which they encounter. Among other Jenets, this is of no concern, for the embarrassed or insulted partly usually possesses knowledge which it in turn can use to offend its offender. In the Jenets, this type of interaction is a measure of pride - if you cannot be insulted, then you have not gained enough notoriety - however, other beings are not as understanding.

Reputation Value: Jenet value reputations. When they introduce their friends, they will describe their friends’ accomplishments in glowing, often exaggeratory, terms. Their enemies get less favorable treatment. A few Jenet are sensitive when they are not introduced in the same way by their non-Jenet friends (their Jenet friends will always remember to do this). Sometimes, this presents difficulties for those seeking discretion.

Move: 12/15 (running); 10/13 (swimming)
Size: 1.4-1.6 meters tall
Source: Ultimate Alien Anthology (p. 81-82), Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races (p. 58-60) & Wookieepedia (For the Jenet Description)